Who is Marcellus Williams
Marcellus Williams was a 55-year-old man whose murder conviction was called into question by a prosecutor. He was executed by lethal injection on Tuesday evening in Missouri after the US Supreme Court denied a stay.
Williams was convicted in 2001 for the 1998 murder of Felicia Gayle, a former newspaper reporter found stabbed in her home. His attorneys raised concerns about potential bias in jury selection and possible contamination of the murder weapon, filing multiple appeals based on what they claimed was new evidence. Despite the victim’s family requesting clemency, the Missouri Supreme Court and governor declined to intervene. The US Supreme Court did not provide an explanation for its decision, though three justices expressed that they would have supported a delay in the execution.
Suggested read: Missouri: Call Governor Parson (417-373-3400) To Stop Sept. 24th Execution Of Marcellus Williams An Innocent Black Man
Marcellus williams last words
Marcellus Williams, a Missouri man, was executed on Tuesday for Felicia Gayle murder in St. Louis. His final statement, “All Praise Be To Allah In Every Situation”
| By CAIR Photos: YouTube Screenshots The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, condemned the U.S. Supreme Court, the Missouri court system and that state’s Governor Michael Lynn Parson for failing to block the execution of wrongfully-convicted death row inmate Imam Marcellus “Khaliifah” Williams, who was executed this Tuesday evening.  Supreme Court Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson would have granted the request to block his execution. In his last statement, Williams wrote, “All Praise Be To Allah In Every Situation.” According to the Missouri Department of Corrections, his last meal included chicken wings and tater tots. His last visit was with Imam Jalahii Kacem. More than 60,000 people signed CAIR’s action alert calling on Governor Parson to stop the execution. CAIR thanked the Innocence project for its immense work on this case and for being a leading advocate challenging the unjust use of the death penalty. In a statement, CAIR National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell said: “We belong to God and to Him shall we return. By condemning Imam Marcellus Williams to death despite the fact that even the prosecuting attorney has argued that his case was marred by constitutional error and that DNA evidence indicates his innocence, the U.S. Supreme Court and the Missouri court system have committed a grave offense against humanity. “We strongly condemn this heinous and unjust execution, which will stain the reputation of our legal system for years to come. We encourage all American Muslims to pray for Imam Williams. May God reward him for responding to decades of injustice with steadfastness, and may God grant him the highest rank of Paradise.” |
