Missouri man executed regardless of prosecutor's opposition By Reuters

By Joseph Ax, Brad Brooks

(Reuters) -A Missouri man was executed on Tuesday, in line with the state’s Division of Corrections, despite the fact that the prosecutor’s workplace that secured his homicide conviction 21 years in the past expressed doubts in regards to the integrity of the case and the sufferer’s household mentioned he must be spared.

The U.S. Supreme Court docket, the final physique that would have halted the execution, declined to intervene within the case hours earlier than Marcellus Williams, 55, was put to loss of life by deadly injection shortly after 6 p.m. (2300 GMT) at a jail in Bonne Terre. 

His loss of life got here a day after each Missouri Governor Mike Parson and the state’s highest courtroom additionally rejected his last-ditch bids to keep away from execution.

Williams was discovered responsible in 2003 of killing Felicia “Lisha” Gayle, a former newspaper reporter who was stabbed to loss of life in her residence. He had maintained his innocence.

St. Louis County prosecuting legal professional Wesley Bell, whose workplace dealt with the unique prosecution, had sought to dam the execution on account of questions in regards to the authentic trial.

Bell mentioned in a written assertion after the execution that “if there is even the shadow of a doubt of innocence, the death penalty should never be an option.”

Tricia Rojo Bushnell, a lawyer with the Innocence Undertaking who helped symbolize Williams, wrote in an announcement that “the execution of an innocent person is the most extreme manifestation of Missouri’s obsession with ‘finality’ over truth, justice, and humanity, at any cost.”

In courtroom papers, Bell questioned the reliability of the 2 important trial witnesses, concluded that prosecutors improperly excluded Black jurors on the idea of race and famous that new testing discovered no hint of Williams’ DNA on the homicide weapon. Williams was African American.

Subsequent assessments revealed DNA on the knife from a prosecutor and an investigator who labored on the case and dealt with the weapon with out gloves.

The contamination of the knife led prosecutors and Williams’ attorneys to achieve an settlement in August calling for him to enter a no-contest plea and obtain a sentence of life in jail.

The state Supreme Court docket blocked the deal on the request of Missouri Legal professional Normal Andrew Bailey. A state decide upheld the conviction earlier this month, discovering that the dearth of proof on the knife was not sufficient to determine his innocence.

The Missouri Supreme Court docket affirmed that call on Monday.

Governor Parson, a Republican, additionally turned down Williams’ request for clemency on Monday.

“We hope this gives finality to a case that has languished for decades, revictimizing Ms. Gayle’s family over and over again,” Parson mentioned in an announcement after the execution. “No juror nor judge has ever found Williams’ innocence claim to be credible.”   

In Williams’ petition for clemency made to the Supreme Court docket, his attorneys famous that Gayle’s circle of relatives thought that he shouldn’t be executed, given doubts about his guilt, and that that they had permitted of his life-in-prison plea deal made in August.   

Laurence Komp and Laine Cardarella, with the Federal Public Defender Workplace within the Western District of Missouri, who additionally represented Williams, mentioned in a written assertion that they have been baffled as to why the “admitted racial discrimination” in Williams’ trial was left unaddressed.

His public defenders mentioned Williams adopted the title Khaliifah ibn Rayford Daniels after changing to Islam. The corrections division launched his handwritten ultimate assertion wherein he mentioned: “All praise be to Allah in every situation!!!”