The state of Missouri executed Marcellus Williams on Tuesday evening, despite vehement opposition from the very prosecutor's office that had originally prosecuted him for the 1998 murder of former St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter Lisha Gayle.
The execution took place amidst a storm of controversy, with Wesley Bell, the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney, and Williams' defense team, having made unsuccessful attempts to have his conviction overturned due to new evidence that they claimed cast doubt on his guilt.
According to The Independent, the execution was carried out at 6:01 p.m. local time, with Williams' son, Marcellus Jr., a rising boxing star, witnessing his father's final moments. Williams was pronounced dead nine minutes after receiving a lethal injection of pentobarbital. Obie Anthony, a fervent supporter of Williams who himself spent nearly 20 years in prison for a wrongful murder conviction, expressed his disbelief, stating, There was reasonable doubt. How can you execute a man when there is reasonable doubt?
Gayle's family, who remained convinced of Williams' guilt until the end, were not present at the execution. They had advocated for his sentence to be commuted to life without parole. Tricia Rojo Bushnell, Williams' attorney and executive director of the Midwest Innocence Project, issued a statement prior to the execution, condemning the state's decision. She said, We must all question any system that would allow this to occur. The execution of an innocent person is the most extreme manifestation of Missouris obsession with finality over truth, justice, and humanity, at any cost. Tonight, we all bear witness to Missouris grotesque exercise of state power. Let it not be in vain. This should never happen, and we must not let it continue.
Bell, who is currently campaigning for Congress as a Democrat, expressed his dismay on social media, stating, Marcellus Williams should be alive today. There were multiple points in the timeline that decisions could have been made that would have spared him the death penalty. If there is even the shadow of a doubt of innocence the death penalty should never be an option. This outcome did not serve the interests of justice.
The execution has sparked widespread criticism, with Sister Helen Prejean, a renowned anti-death penalty activist, questioning the legitimacy of the entire legal process. Rep. Cori Bush, Democrat of Missouri, labeled Williams execution a depravity. The NAACP accused Missouri Gov. Michael Parson, a self-proclaimed pro-life Republican, of having lynched Williams.
Justin Brooks, an attorney and professor at the University of San Diego School of Law, told The Independent that the primary concern Americans have about the death penalty is the risk of executing an innocent person. He said, Every time an innocent person is freed from death row, that concern is amplified. Now that 200 innocent people have been freed from death row, we can longer pretend that innocent people are not sentenced to death, nor that it has only happened a few times.
Williams was initially scheduled for execution in January 2015, but then-Gov. Eric Greitens, a Republican, granted a last-minute reprieve for further DNA testing. In August 2017, just hours before Williams was due to be executed, Greitens ordered a stay of execution after new testing techniques determined that the DNA on the murder weapon's handle could not have come from Williams. However, his execution on Tuesday has sparked global outrage, largely due to Gov. Parson's insistence on proceeding despite serious doubts about Williams' guilt.
Obie Anthony, who was wrongfully convicted of first-degree murder at 19 and spent 17 years in prison before being exonerated, expressed his deep pain and outrage at Williams' execution. He said, Even with evidence of [Williams] innocence, that didnt even matter... Justice has been cuffed and put behind the bench. Reasonable doubt no longer matters. Anthony, a Missouri native who splits his time between California and the St. Louis area, has emerged in recent years as a staunch believer in Williams' innocence.
Anthony decried the execution as a "perversion" and a "tragedy in all forms," arguing that the justice system had become an "injustice system" in Williams' case. He said, We know this is not justice. The family members said this is not justice. The prosecutor said this is not justice. Over a million people [who signed a petition against Williams execution] said this is not justice How can people stand for this?
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