Headline Roundup • September 25th, 2024
Did Missouri Execute an Innocent Man?
Summary from the AllSides News Team
The state of Missouri executed Marcellus Williams on Sept. 24, despite the prosecution and victim's family opposing the execution.
The Details: Last January, St. Louis County prosecuting attorney Wesley Bell alleged that Williams’ constitutional rights were violated during his murder trial in the early 2000s, including the prosecutor improperly rejecting black jurors. Williams was black; the victim was white. DNA evidence on the murder weapon belonged to members of the prosecutor's office who had handled it. It didn’t link Williams to the crime or provide an alternative suspect.
The Deal: Given the DNA evidence, Bell offered a deal to commit Williams to life in prison without parole instead of death row, which the victim's family approved. The attorney general and state Supreme Court rejected the agreement.
Calls to Stay the Execution: The NAACP, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO), and other groups called for clemency.
Calls Declined: Gov. Mike Parson highlighted Williams’ criminal record and said that “over 15 hearings attempting to argue his innocence and overturn his conviction,” no jury or court “ever found merit in Mr. Williams’ innocence claims." The U.S. Supreme Court declined to stay the execution an hour before it happened, with the three liberal justices dissenting.
How the Media Covered It: Left and center-rated sources covered the story prominently; the right covered it less. Most highlighted outcry over Williams’ execution and focused less on the state’s reasons for upholding it. Some on the left led with calls to spare his life, the DNA evidence, or his final moments.
Featured Coverage of this Story
Marcellus Williams was executed on Tuesday night in the US state of Missouri after spending more than two decades on death row.
Williams, who had two previous executions stayed, maintained he was innocent in the 1998 fatal stabbing of Felicia Gayle in a St Louis suburb, and a wide swath of people had opposed his death sentence.
An attorney representing Williams argued there was racial discrimination in selecting jurors and that DNA evidence in the case was mishandled.
The execution of a death row inmate whose murder conviction has been doubted by the prosecutors that convicted him has sparked a wave of outrage across the US.
Missouri Governor Mike Parson has been branded 'shameful' and 'racist' and the state and federal justice systems accused of being 'flawed' after Marcellus Williams was put to death by lethal injection on Tuesday.
Williams, 55, was sentenced to death over the 1998 killing of Lisha Gayle, who was stabbed repeatedly during a burglary of her suburban St. Louis home.
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(Laurie Skrivan/St. Louis Post-Dispatch via AP)
A Missouri man convicted of breaking into a woman’s home and repeatedly stabbing her was executed Tuesday over the objections of the victim’s family and the prosecutor, who wanted the death sentence commuted to life in prison.
Marcellus Williams, 55, was convicted in the 1998 killing of Lisha Gayle, who was stabbed during the burglary of her suburban St. Louis home.
Williams was put to death despite questions his attorneys raised over jury selection at his trial and the handling of evidence in the case. His clemency petition focused heavily...
