By Innocence Project
Photos: Marcellus Williams’ Legal Team\YouTube Screenshots
Tuesday, the Missouri Supreme Court scheduled Marcellus Williams to be executed on Sept. 24, 2024 at 6 p.m. for a 1998 murder — despite DNA evidence supporting his innocence.
Upon hearing the news, attorneys for Marcellus released a statement:
“The St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney has asserted that he has clear and convincing evidence that Marcellus Williams is innocent. It is alarming that an execution date has been set in spite of this. To date, no court has ever reviewed the DNA evidence proving Mr. Williams was not the individual who wielded the murder weapon and committed this crime. Yet, the State successfully sought an execution date, highlighting the system’s emphasis on finality over innocence. That is not justice. We will continue to fight for Mr. Williams’ exoneration and seek a hearing on the prosecutor’s motion to vacate.”
For the past 24 years, Marcellus has been on death row for a murder that DNA evidence proves someone else committed.
In 1998, a former St. Louis Post-Dispatch Reporter Felicia Gayle was stabbed to death multiple times in her own home. Two years later, Marcellus was convicted of first-degree murder, robbery, and burglary. His conviction primarily relied upon the inconsistent testimonies of two incentivized witnesses, with no concrete physical evidence linking him to the crime scene.
Marcellus was not the source of the bloody footprints found at the scene nor the unknown hairs that were left behind. Then, in 2016, he was excluded as the source of the DNA found on the murder weapon, proving he did not commit the crime and contradicting the testimony used to convict him. Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell even filed a motion with the trial court to vacate Marcellus’ conviction because he believed that the DNA results were clear and convincing evidence of his innocence.
Despite all of this, the courts have refused to review the exculpatory evidence that would prove his innocence — and now the state has set his execution date.
