The judicial assassination of Marcellus Williams

The state of Missouri executed Marcellus “Khalifah” Williams on Tuesday night, despite knowing he was most likely innocent of the crime for which he was convicted.

The state of Missouri executed Williams despite always maintaining his innocence in the 1998 murder of Felicia Gayle.

The state of Missouri put Marcellus Williams to death by injecting him with a toxic chemical compound known to cause extreme pain and suffering.

The state of Missouri executed Williams even though the prosecutor’s office that tried him determined his conviction should be overturned.

The state of Missouri executed Williams after several jurors who voted to convict him and sentence him to death said they now regretted their verdict and wanted to see him released.

The state of Missouri executed Williams even though the state admitted that the physical evidence used to convict him was misused and tainted by a botched police investigation.

The state of Missouri executed Williams even though there was no physical evidence linking him to the murder scene.

The state of Missouri executed Williams, although the prosecution withheld exculpatory evidence from the defense.

The state of Missouri executed Williams despite the fact that potential jurors in the case who were black had been arbitrarily excluded from the jury.

The state of Missouri executed Williams even after it was revealed that its prosecutor had excluded a black juror because he said the juror “looked like Williams’ brother.”

The state of Missouri executed Williams even though its jury consisted of 11 whites and one black.

The state of Missouri executed Williams even though the two prosecution witnesses were known liars.

The state of Missouri executed Williams even though the two prosecution witnesses were both felons.

The state of Missouri executed Williams even though the two prosecution witnesses changed their stories several times before the trial.

The state of Missouri executed Williams after two prosecution witnesses learned of a $10,000 reward offered by the victim’s family.

The state of Missouri executed Williams even though the two prosecution witnesses received lenient treatment in ongoing court cases.

The state of Missouri executed Williams, despite false testimony from “enticed witnesses” being the leading cause of wrongful convictions.

The state of Missouri executed Williams even though one of the prosecution’s witnesses was a prison informant.

The state of Missouri executed Williams even though eleven of the 54 people exonerated in Missouri were convicted through the testimony of prison informants.

The state of Missouri executed Williams despite data that St. Louis defendants convicted in capital cases were 3.5 times more likely to receive the death penalty if the victim was white and the defendant white , as in the case of Williams.

The state of Missouri executed Williams after he transformed his life in prison, becoming an imam, a mentor to other prisoners, and a poet. Even on death row, Williams remained, according to his children, a “devoted” father.

The state of Missouri executed Williams even though nine years ago the Missouri Supreme Court stayed his execution and appointed a special master to review DNA testing of potentially exculpatory evidence.

The state of Missouri executed Williams even though DNA testing in 2016 showed Williams was not the source of the male DNA found on the murder weapon.

The state of Missouri executed Williams even though then-Governor Eric Greitens granted him a reprieve on August 22, 2017, after he ate his last meal and just hours before he was put to death.

The state of Missouri executed Williams after the new governor, Mike Parson Parsons, illegally disbanded the commission of inquiry before it had a chance to release its report on the DNA evidence that cleared Williams of murder .

The state of Missouri executed Williams even though St. Louis District Attorney Wesley Bell said the DNA results and lack of other evidence in the case “cast inexorable doubt on the conviction.” and Mr. Williams’ sentence.”

The state of Missouri executed Williams even though the DNA expert who reviewed the evidence in the case asked, “How innocent do you have to be to avoid being executed?”

The state of Missouri executed Williams even after Williams and prosecutors reached an agreement that he would plead to first-degree murder in exchange for another sentence of life in prison without parole. (The plea did not constitute an admission of guilt and would not have barred him from appealing his conviction.)

The state of Missouri executed Williams even though a judge approved the plea deal.

The state of Missouri executed Williams even though Gayle’s family insisted that his life be spared. (The desire of murder victims’ families for retributive justice is often used by prosecutors to justify the execution of death row inmates. But when these families object to the killing of people in the name of their murdered loved ones, their wishes and their moral convictions are ignored.)

The state of Missouri executed Williams despite any evidence that executions act as a deterrent to homicide or other crimes.

The state of Missouri executed Williams after six “pro-life” Supreme Court justices refused to grant a stay to review evidence proving his innocence.

The state of Missouri executed Williams after a Supreme Court, which has granted only 11 stays of execution out of 270 requests over the past decade, rejected his.

The state of Missouri executed Williams after Joe Biden and Kamala Harris refused to speak out against the execution of an innocent black man.

The state of Missouri executed Williams, even though at least 200 people on death row have been exonerated since the death penalty was reinstated in 1973.

The state of Missouri executed Williams after the Democratic Party removed its opposition to the death penalty from its platform. The 2020 and 2016 Democratic platforms called for the abolition of the death penalty, which they called a “cruel and unusual form of punishment” that “has no place” in the country.

The state of Missouri executed Williams, knowing that the state attorney general’s office had opposed every innocence case over the past 30 years.

The state of Missouri executed Williams even though at least 20 possibly innocent people have been executed in the United States since 1989. Their names are:

+ Carlos DeLuna (Texas, executed in 1989)

+ Ruben Cantu (Texas, executed in 1993)

+ Larry Griffin (Missouri, executed in 1995)

+ Joseph O’Dell (Virginia, executed in 1997)

+ David Spence (Texas, executed in 1997)

+ Leo Jones (Florida, executed in 1998)

+ Gary Graham (Texas, executed in 2000)

+ Claude Jones (Texas, executed in 2000)

+ Cameron Todd Willingham (Texas, executed in 2004)

+ Sedley Alley (Tennessee, executed in 2006)

+ Troy Davis (Georgia, executed in 2011)

+ Lester Bower (Texas, executed in 2015)

+ Brian Terrell (Georgia, executed in 2015)

+ Richard Masterson (Texas, executed in 2016)

+ Robert Pruett (Texas, executed in 2017)

+ Carlton Michael Gary (Georgia, executed in 2018)

+ Domineque Ray (Alabama, executed in 2019)

+ Larry Swearingen (Texas, executed in 2019)

+ Walter Barton (Missouri, executed in 2020)

+ Nathaniel Woods (Alabama, executed in 2020)

The state of Missouri executed Marcellus Williams, making him the 21st person executed in the United States since the reinstatement of the death penalty, despite credible evidence of his innocence.

The state of Missouri executed Marcellus Williams and plans to execute Christopher Leroy Collings in December.

The state of Missouri plans to execute another innocent man, Robert Roberson, on October 17.