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    • Marcellus Williams Executed in Murder of Former Missouri Reporter
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    Marcellus Williams Executed in Murder of Former Missouri Reporter

    Vaseline Posted on

    The execution took place despite one of the prosecutors in the case saying Williams’ life should be spared because DNA did not link him to the case. Williams has always maintained his innocence.

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    Missouri executed Marcellus Williams by lethal injection Tuesday after he killed a former journalist in 1998, the inmate’s attorney said, despite prosecutors in the case and the victim’s family arguing his life should be spared.

    Jonathan Potts, one of Williams’ attorneys, confirmed to USA TODAY that he was executed.

    Williams, who has maintained his innocence — a claim supported not only by his defense team but also by prosecutors — is now the third inmate executed in Missouri this year and the 15th in the country.

    “Tonight we are all witnesses to Missouri’s grotesque exercise of state power,” Williams’ attorney, Tricia Rojo Bushnell, said in a statement, noting how prosecutors “fought diligently to overturn the conviction and save Mr. Williams’ life.”

    Williams’ son, Marcellus Williams Jr., told KSDK-TV: “This is a murder.”

    Williams, 55, was convicted of the Aug. 11, 1998, murder of Lisha Gayle, a former police reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch who was killed during a burglary at the suburban St. Louis home she shared with her husband, a physician. She was stabbed 43 times with a kitchen knife taken from the couple’s home.

    No DNA has ever linked Williams to the crime scene. In recent months, a prosecutor in the case said the execution should have been stopped, and in a petition for clemency, Gayle’s family said they “define closure as allowing Marcellus to live.”

    “The execution of Marcellus is not necessary,” they said.

    Despite this, Missouri Republican Governor Mike Parson and the Missouri Supreme Court on Monday refused to pardon Williams.

    And on Tuesday, less than an hour before the execution, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to stay the execution, even though the court’s three liberal justices said they would have granted Williams a stay: Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

    US to execute 5 men in 6 days: A look at the state of the death penalty

    Last meal of Marcellus Willem, last visitors, last breath

    Williams’ last meal consisted of chicken wings and tater tots, Missouri Department of Corrections spokeswoman Karen Pojmann told USA TODAY.

    His last visit was to Imam Jalahii Kacem and lasted about 90 minutes.

    Before his death, Williams was asked if he had any final words. Before the execution, the corrections department gave USA TODAY what Williams said his final words would be. They are: “Praise be to Allah in every situation.”

    Death Penalty in the US: In which states are prisoners still being executed and which state has carried out the most executions?

    How was Marcellus Williams executed?

    Williams died by lethal injection, the most commonly used method in the country.

    Death row inmates in the state can choose to die by lethal injection or lethal gas.

    Williams was administered a 5-gram dose of pentobarbital, in accordance with Missouri’s lethal injection protocol.

    What was Marcellus Williams convicted of?

    Williams was convicted in 2001 of first-degree murder, first-degree burglary and first-degree robbery in connection with the death of Gayle, who was described as a “once-in-a-lifetime friend” who looked for the good in people.

    Gayle, who was 42, was in the shower the morning someone broke into her home on a private, gated street. He entered through the front door after breaking a small window, reaching inside and unlocking the front door.

    Gayle was wearing a long purple T-shirt and left the second-floor bathroom. She was walking downstairs when she encountered the killer on the landing. At one point, she was stabbed 43 times with a kitchen knife she had taken from the house.

    Later that night, Gayle’s husband found his wife’s body in the couple’s hallway and called 911.

    Among the evidence police collected: bloody shoe prints and fingerprints, a knife sheath, and the suspect’s hair collected from Gayle’s shirt, hands, and the floor. Gayle’s purse and jacket were missing from the house, as was her husband’s laptop.

    Williams was found guilty in 2001 and sentenced to death.

    Williams was previously scheduled to be executed twice, but both times the execution was stopped

    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 most recent stay of execution was ordered by then-Governor Eric Greiten, who appointed a commission of inquiry to investigate the case.

    But in the summer of 2023, newly sworn-in Governor Mike Parson dissolved the board and lifted the ban. The courts, Parsons said, would decide Williams’ fate, and the Missouri Supreme Court issued a third execution order for Williams.

    What did Williams argue in his appeal?

    On August 21, District Attorney Wesley Bell’s office and Williams’ attorneys reached an agreement that allowed Williams to enter a new, no-contest plea to first-degree murder in exchange for a sentence of life in prison without parole. The victim’s husband, Daniel Picus, signed the plea.

    Although Bell filed a motion to overturn Williams’ murder conviction, Attorney General Andrew Bailey argued that it should stand. He ordered St. Louis County District Judge Bruce Hilton to hold a hearing on the case. Hilton accepted the motion and granted the request.

    At an Aug. 28 hearing, the retired prosecutor who tried the case admitted that evidence that could have exonerated Williams was mishandled in the 1998 trial.

    But on September 12, Hilton refused to overturn Williams’ conviction and sentence, despite questions about DNA evidence from the knife used in the attack. On appeal, his defense presented evidence that DNA taken from the knife revealed an unknown male profile and did not match Williams.

    “There is no basis for any court to find Williams innocent, and no court has made such a finding,” wrote St. Louis County Circuit Judge Bruce Hilton. “Williams is guilty of first-degree murder and is sentenced to death.”

    After Parson denied one of the final requests to halt the execution on Monday, the governor issued a statement saying that “no jury or court, including the trial court, the appellate court and the Supreme Court, has ever upheld Mr. Williams’ claims of innocence.”

    “The death penalty is one of the most difficult issues we face as governor, but when push comes to shove, I will follow the law and trust the integrity of our justice system,” he said.

    How many people are currently on death row in Missouri?

    The last execution took place on June 11, just before Williams’ death. The state executed when David Hosier, the 2009 killer of Angela Gilpin, his former lover and married mother of two, was killed.

    A fourth execution is also scheduled this year for Christopher Leroy Collings, who was convicted in 2007 of the rape and murder of 9-year-old Rowan Ford. He will die by lethal injection on December 3.

    As of Tuesday evening, nine people were on death row in Missouri, all men between the ages of 44 and 68.

    Two more executions are expected back-to-back on Thursday in Alabama and Oklahoma.

    Natalie Neysa Alund is a senior reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at [email protected] and follow her at X @nataliealund.

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