A Missouri death row inmate scheduled to be executed Tuesday for the stabbing death of a former reporter in 1998 maintains he is innocent and that forensics have never shown a connection to the murder.
Marcellus Williams, 55, will be the third inmate to be executed in Missouri this year and the 15th or 16th nationwide, depending on whether he is declared dead before or after Travis James Mullis, who is scheduled to be executed in Texas on the same day. Two more consecutive executions will take place on Thursday in Alabama and Oklahoma.
Williams was convicted of murdering Lisha Gayle, a former reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch who was stabbed to death during a burglary at the home she shared with her husband.
The St. Louis County Prosecutor’s Office supports Williams’ claim of innocence and recently filed a motion to vacate his conviction. The motion was approved by a county judge, but was quickly challenged by Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey. The case was sent back to the same judge for trial, and on September 12, the judge overturned the verdict.
Meanwhile, those who believe Williams is innocent continue to fight for a stay of sentence.
As Williams’ execution approaches, USA Today spoke with his lawyer to reflect on the crime and the person he was.
Why was Marcellus Williams convicted?
Police said Gayle was in the shower on the morning of Aug. 11, 1998, when Williams broke into her home on a private, gated street.
Police said the 42-year-old woman had left a second-floor bathroom and was walking downstairs when she was confronted by Williams on the landing, at which point he stabbed her 43 times with a kitchen knife that was in the home.
Gayle’s husband, Daniel Pikas, discovered his wife’s body later that night and called 911. Evidence collected by police included bloody shoeprints and fingerprints, the knife sheath, and suspect hairs from Gayle’s shirt, hands, and the floor. Missing from the home were Gayle’s purse and jacket, and her husband’s laptop.
No suspects were immediately identified, and in May 1999, Gayle’s family offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction in the case.
Shortly thereafter, an inmate named Henry Cole and Williams’ girlfriend, Lara Asaro, pinned his name on Williams. At the time of his conviction, Williams had just begun serving a 20-year sentence for robbing a donut shop in downtown St. Louis.
Although there was no forensic evidence linking Williams to the crime scene, a jury convicted him of murder and burglary.
Williams’ lawyers argue that both informants had an interest in cooperating with prosecutors and that their testimony sometimes changed or contradicted other details about the murder. Both witnesses have since died.
Learn more about Williams
Born in South Bend, Indiana, on Dec. 30, 1968, Williams moved to St. Louis with his mother and two siblings when he was about 5 years old.
According to court documents, Williams grew up in a poor and dysfunctional home where he was exposed to alcohol, drugs and firearms from an early age. He suffered violent sexual and physical abuse from some in his family, was abandoned by his parents and was tolerated by family members who engaged in criminal activity and drug abuse.
According to court records, Williams’ brother was like a father to him, and his death in 1997 hit him hard. That same year, Williams burglarized a home and served time in prison until he was convicted in 1998 of the Donut Shot robbery.
Williams’ defense team presented evidence during the sentencing phase of his murder trial that he was a “caring and loving father.”
Several family members and friends of Williams, including his son and stepdaughter, testified about the good relationship Williams had with his children and said his execution “will have a profound impact on the family.”
According to the Innocence Project, Williams spent much of his time in prison studying Islam and writing poetry.
Williams was scheduled for execution twice before, but both attempts were canceled.
Williams was scheduled to be executed in January 2015 and August 2017.
Both lethal injections were halted to allow for further DNA testing and investigation. The latest moratorium on executions was issued by then-Governor Eric Greiten, who appointed a commission of inquiry to look into the cases.
However, in the summer of 2023, newly-elected Governor Mike Parson dissolved the commission and lifted the stay of execution. Governor Parsons said Williams’ fate would be decided by the courts, and the Missouri Supreme Court issued a third death warrant for Williams.
What did Williams argue on appeal?
In January, Williams’ lawyers filed a motion to vacate his conviction and sentence.
On August 21, County Attorney Wesley Bell’s office and Williams’ defense team agreed that Williams would enter a new not guilty plea to the first-degree murder charge and instead receive a sentence of life in prison without parole. The victim’s husband, Daniel Pikas, signed the plea.
Bell moved to overturn Williams’ murder conviction, but state Attorney General Andrew Bailey argued the conviction should stand and ordered St. Louis County Circuit Judge Bruce Hilton, who pleaded guilty, to hold an evidentiary hearing in the case.
Bailey said the defense “created a false narrative of innocence in order to free a convicted murderer from death row and achieve their own political objectives.”
At the Aug. 28 hearing, the former prosecutor in the case admitted to improper handling of evidence that could have exonerated Williams at his 1998 trial.
But on September 12, Judge Hilton refused to set aside Williams’ conviction and sentence, despite doubts about DNA testing on the knife used in the attack. During the appeal hearing, the defense presented evidence that DNA taken from the knife belonged to an unknown man and did not match Williams.
“There is no basis for this court to find Williams innocent, and no court has ever made such a finding,” St. Louis County Circuit Judge Bruce Hilton wrote. “Williams was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to death.”
Williams’ lawyer, Tricia Rojo Bushnell, told USA Today that her client’s legal team plans to file further appeals and seek a pardon.
Unless the court or the governor intervenes, Williams’ execution is expected to take place this week.
Williams is one of five people to be executed within the week.
Williams is one of five people scheduled to be executed in the U.S. over the next six days. The first was Freddie Owens, who was executed in South Carolina on Friday amid new doubts about his guilt.
On Tuesday, at the same time as Williams’ execution, Texas also plans to execute Travis James Mullis for the murder of his infant son.
Tuesday’s double execution will be followed by two more back-to-back executions on Thursday: Alabama plans to use nitrogen gas to execute Alan Eugene Miller, who shot and killed three co-workers in 1999, despite evidence that he suffered from mental illness and despite a witness to the state’s previous nitrogen gas execution in January calling the method “horrific.”
Also Thursday, Oklahoma is scheduled to execute Emanuel Littlejohn, who shot and killed a convenience store clerk in 1992 but denied the crime.
If all five executions are carried out, the US will have executed 18 inmates this year. Six more are scheduled for execution by the end of December, with more likely to be added to the schedule.
Natalie Neysa Alund is a senior reporter at USA TODAY. Contact her at nalund@usatoday.com and follow her at X @nataliealund.