Who was Marcellus Williams? Missouri executes man, 55, for 1998 murder of reporter Felicia Gayle
Marcellus Williams was backed in his appeals for clemency by St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell.
Missouri officials executed death row inmate Marcellus Williams on Tuesday, September 24, at the Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center in Bonne Terre. Williams was put to death a few hours after the US Supreme Court rejected his final appeal. The inmate's final words were, “All praise to Allah in every situation.”
Williams was sentenced to death for the 1998 murder of Felicia Gayle, a reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Gayle was stabbed over 40 times with a butcher's knife taken from her kitchen in her gated community in University City, Missouri, during a daytime burglary at her home in August.
Williams, 55, died after 6 pm by lethal injection. He was backed in his appeals for clemency by St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell. In fact, the victim’s family, too, had reportedly asked that Williams be spared death.
Who was Marcellus Williams?
Williams was convicted in 2001 of Gayle’s murder. Physical evidence at the crime scene, including fingerprints, bloodied shoe prints and hairs, reportedly could not be tied to Williams. He was arrested based on a jailhouse informant’s testimony, who said Williams confessed to the slaying. During testimony at Williams’ murder trial, his then-girlfriend, too, claimed that he had confessed to the murder.
Meanwhile, Bell issued a statement saying, “Marcellus Williams should be alive today. There were multiple points in the timeline when 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.”
Bell made a final effort to reduce Williams’ statement by filing a case under a 2021 state law allowing prosecutors to bring new evidence to the courts. This law was used in a death penalty case for the first time.
However, on Monday, September 23, Gov. Mike Parson said he would not stop the execution as the appeals did not convince him. “No jury nor court, including at the trial, appellate, and Supreme Court levels, have ever found merit in Mr. Williams’ innocence claims,” Parson said. “At the end of the day, his guilty verdict and sentence of capital punishment were upheld. Nothing from the real facts of this case have led me to believe in Mr. Williams’ innocence, as such, Mr. Williams’ punishment will be carried out as ordered by the Supreme Court.”
Williams became the 100th person to be executed by Missouri since 1989. That year, executions resumed in the state after a two-decade lapse.
Larry Komp, one of Williams’ attorneys, claimed that his client maintained his innocence until his death. “While he would readily admit to the wrongs he had done throughout his life, he never wavered in asserting his innocence of the crime for which he was put to death tonight,” Komp said, according to CNN. “Although we are devastated and in disbelief over what the State has done to an innocent man, we are comforted that he left this world in peace.”
