Marcellus Williams, a Missouri death row inmate, was executed by lethal injection on Tuesday for the 1998 murder of Lisha Gayle, a former newspaper reporter. Gayle was found stabbed to death in her suburban St. Louis home. Williams, 55, was pronounced dead shortly after 6:00 p.m. CDT at a state prison in Bonne Terre, about 60 miles southwest of St. Louis, according to his lawyer.
The case drew widespread attention, as Williams consistently claimed his innocence. The family of the victim opposed the execution, while his legal team pursued appeals at every level of the judicial system.
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“Marcellus Williams should be alive today,” said Wesley Bell, chief prosecutor for St. Louis County, in a statement following the execution. “There were multiple opportunities where decisions could have spared him. The death penalty should never be an option when there’s any doubt about guilt. This outcome is not justice.”
The U.S. Supreme Court rejected two final appeals to stop the execution just one hour before Williams’ death, despite dissent from Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson, Elena Kagan, and Sonia Sotomayor.
Williams’ attorney, Tricia Rojo Bushnell, issued a statement following the court’s decision, declaring, “Tonight, Missouri will execute an innocent man, Marcellus ‘Khaliifah’ Williams.” She added, “As painful as today is, we must honor Khaliifah by striving for a more just future. We are grateful for the efforts of the St. Louis Prosecuting Attorney and the millions who supported Khaliifah by signing petitions, making calls, and sharing his story.”
On Monday, Missouri Governor Mike Parson and the state’s Supreme Court also denied attempts to stop the execution. In a statement to media, Parson defended the decision, stating, “No jury or court, from the trial level to the Supreme Court, has ever found merit in Mr. Williams’ innocence claims.” He added, “The guilty verdict and death sentence were upheld, and nothing in the case leads me to believe Mr. Williams is innocent.”
Williams was convicted of first-degree murder in 1999 for killing Gayle, who had transitioned from journalism to social work. In 2001, a jury found him guilty. Prosecutors argued that Williams broke into Gayle’s home in August 1998, stabbing her 43 times with a butcher knife. After the attack, her purse and her husband’s laptop were stolen.
Court documents revealed that the kitchen knife used in the murder was left lodged in Gayle’s body. Blood, hair, fingerprints, and shoe prints were found at the scene, believed to belong to the assailant. However, Williams’ defense argued that his DNA was not on the weapon, and that two unidentified DNA samples could point to the real killer.
Recent DNA evidence showed that the original prosecutor and investigator had failed to wear gloves when handling the knife, contaminating it with their own DNA. Williams’ defense maintained that this mishandling should have exonerated him, but Parson dismissed these arguments, saying, “The courts have already rejected these claims.”
Williams’ execution was the third in Missouri this year and the 100th since the state reinstated the death penalty in 1989.
