Missouri on Tuesday carried out the death penalty for Williams in the 1998 murder of a former newspaper reporter, despite arguments from prosecutors and the victim’s family that his life should be spared.
Williams maintained his innocence, a claim supported by his defense team as well as the prosecution. He became the third person executed in Missouri this year and the 15th person on death row in the United States. Williams was pronounced dead by lethal injection at 6:10 p.m., according to a statement from the Missouri Department of Corrections.
“Tonight we all witness a bizarre exercise of state power in Missouri,” Williams’ lawyer, Tricia Rojo Bushnell, said in a statement, emphasizing that prosecutors “fought vigorously to overturn the conviction and save Mr. Williams’ life.”
“This is murder,” Williams’ son, Marcellus Williams Jr., told KSDK-TV.
Williams, 55, was convicted of the Aug. 11, 1998, murder of former St. Louis Post-Dispatch police reporter Lisha Gayle, who was killed during a burglary at the suburban St. Louis home she shared with her husband, a doctor. She was stabbed 43 times with a kitchen knife seized from the couple’s home.
No DNA testing has ever linked Williams to the crime scene. In recent months, prosecutors in the case have said the execution should have been stayed, and in their clemency petition, Gale’s family said they “define closure as Marcellus remaining alive.”
“There is no need to execute Marcellus,” they said.
Still, Missouri Gov. Mike Parson, a Republican, and the Missouri Supreme Court on Monday refused to pardon Williams.
Then on Tuesday, with less than an hour to go, the US Supreme Court refused to stay the execution, although the court’s three liberal justices, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, said they intended to grant a stay on Williams’ execution. The Supreme Court did not offer any explanation for its decision.
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Marcellus William’s last meal, last visitor, last breath
Missouri Department of Corrections spokeswoman Karen Pojman told USA Today that Williams’ final meal included chicken wings and tater tots.
His final visit was with Imam Jarrahi Kagem, lasting about 90 minutes.
Williams was asked if he had any final words before his execution, and the Bureau of Prisons told USA Today ahead of his execution what Williams intended to say as his final words: “All praise be to Allah in all circumstances.”
Marcellus Williams was a “kind and thoughtful man.”
Lead attorney Williams said more than one million citizens and religious leaders had pleaded with Judge Parson to commute Marcellus’ death sentence.
“This is not justice,” Bushnell said, “and we all have to question any system that allows this to happen.”
She described Mr Williams as a “kind and thoughtful man” who supported those around him through his role as imam in his later years.
“We will remember his deeply moving poetry and his love and service to his family and community,” she said. “Though he longed to return home, he was a thoughtful man who worked hard to overcome the anger, frustration and fear of his unjust execution and poured his energy into his faith, finding meaning and connection through Islam. The world would be a worse place without him.”
She also thanked the prosecutors who tried to save Williams’ life “for their commitment to truth and justice and for working to prevent this unspeakable injustice.”
“Tonight the state of Missouri lynched another innocent black man.”
Williams’ execution drew criticism not only from religious leaders and concerned citizens, but also from government leaders and national advocacy groups such as the NAACP and Black Lives Matter.
Missouri Democratic Rep. Cori Bush said Parson not only ignored Williams’ pleas and took her life, but “demonstrated how the death penalty can be carried out without regard for innocence, compassion, fairness or humanity.”
“He has shown us that the ‘beyond a reasonable doubt’ standard is applied selectively, depending on who is accused and who holds power,” Bush said in a statement to USA Today.
“Tonight, the state of Missouri lynched yet another innocent black man,” NAACP President Derrick Johnson said in a statement to USA TODAY. “Governor Parson had a responsibility to save this innocent life, but he failed to do so. The NAACP was founded in 1909 in reaction to the barbaric lynching of black people in America. We were founded precisely because of people like Governor Parson who perpetuated violence against innocent black people. We will hold Governor Parson accountable. When DNA evidence proves innocence, the death penalty is not justice, it is murder.”
“What this despicable Governor has done to an innocent black man is sickening,” Black Lives Matter posted on X.
USA TODAY has reached out to Parson’s office for comment on the criticism.
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How was Marcellus Williams executed?
Williams died by lethal injection, the most common method in the country.
In the state, death row inmates can choose to die by lethal injection or lethal gas.
Williams was given five grams of pentobarbital, in accordance with Missouri’s lethal injection statute.
What crime was Marcellus Williams convicted of?
Williams was convicted in 2001 of first-degree murder, first-degree burglary and first-degree robbery in the death of Gayle, who he described as a “once-in-a-lifetime friend” who always looked for the good in people.
Gayle, 42, was in the shower the morning someone broke into her home on a privately gated street. The man broke a small pane of glass, reached inside, unlocked the front door and entered the house through the front door.
Gayle, wearing a long purple T-shirt, had just left a second-floor bathroom and was walking down the stairs when the attacker encountered her on the landing, at which point he stabbed her 43 times with a kitchen knife that had been stolen from the house.
Later that night, Gayle’s husband discovered his wife’s body in the foyer of their home and called 911.
Evidence collected by police included bloody shoe prints, fingerprints, the knife sheath, Gayle’s shirt and hands, and the suspect’s hair collected from the floor. Missing from the house were Gayle’s handbag and jacket, and her husband’s laptop.
Williams was convicted and sentenced to death in 2001.
Williams was scheduled for execution twice before, but both attempts were canceled.
Williams was previously 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.
But in the summer of 2023, a newly sworn-in Parson dissolved the committee and lifted the stay of execution. Parson 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?
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 be sentenced to 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.
During an evidentiary hearing on Aug. 28, the former prosecutor on the case acknowledged that evidence was improperly handled at the 1998 trial, which could have led to Williams being acquitted.
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. On appeal, the defence 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.”
After Governor Parson denied one of the final motions to stay the execution on Monday, he issued a statement saying, “No jury or court, including the trial court, appellate court or Supreme Court, has found merit in Mr. Williams’ claim of innocence.”
“Death penalty cases are some of the most difficult issues I have to deal with in the governor’s office, but at the end of the day I follow the law and have faith in the integrity of our judicial system,” he said.
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How many inmates are currently on death row in Missouri?
Before William’s death, the most recent execution had been that of David Hosier, who shot and killed William’s former girlfriend, Angela Gilpin, a married mother of two, in 2009. The state carried out the execution on June 11.
A fourth execution is also scheduled this year for Christopher Leroy Collings, who was convicted of the rape and murder of 9-year-old Rowan Ford in 2007. Collings is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on December 3rd.
As of late Tuesday, there were nine people on Missouri’s death row, all men between the ages of 44 and 68.
Two more consecutive executions are scheduled to take place Thursday in Alabama and Oklahoma.
This story has been updated to include new information.
Natalie Neysa Alund is a senior reporter at USA TODAY. Contact her at nalund@usatoday.com and follow her at X @nataliealund.