Missouri man tries life-or-death to prove his innocence before being executed next month

A hearing begins on Wednesday that will determine the life and death of Marcellus Williams, an inmate in Missouri.

The case before St. Louis County District Judge Bruce Hilton is based on a motion by prosecutor Wesley Bell to overturn Williams' 1998 murder conviction. Time is running out: Williams is scheduled to be executed on Sept. 24, and neither Missouri Governor Mike Parson nor Attorney General Andrew Bailey have shown any intention of delaying the trial.

Williams, 55, was convicted of the premeditated murder of Lisha Gayle in 1998. In August 2017, his execution was imminent when then-Republican Gov. Eric Greitens granted a stay after DNA testing, which was not available at the time of the murder, showed that DNA on the knife matched that of another person, not Williams.

This evidence prompted Bell to re-investigate the case.

“This previously unaddressed evidence, coupled with the relative paucity of other credible evidence of guilt, as well as additional considerations of inadequate legal representation and racial discrimination in jury selection, raises inescapable doubt about Mr. Williams' conviction and sentence,” Bell's motion states.

Williams, who is black, was found guilty and sentenced to death by a jury of eleven whites and one black.

Bailey, a Republican, said in a June court filing that the “evidence for a conviction at trial was overwhelming,” despite the new DNA allegations.

A 2021 law in Missouri allows prosecutors to file a motion to overturn a conviction they believe was unjust. The law has led to the acquittal of three men who spent decades in prison, including Christopher Dunn last month.

Typically, a judge listens to testimony for a few days and then takes up to two months to weigh the evidence. But Hilton won't have that luxury: Williams' execution is still 34 days away.

The Missouri Supreme Court set the execution date for June 4 in September, just hours after ruling that Parson, a Republican, was right to disband a committee of inquiry convened by Greitens after it blocked the execution in 2017.

The investigative committee, made up of five retired judges, never made a ruling or reached a conclusion on whether the new DNA evidence exonerated Williams. Parson dissolved the committee in June 2023, saying it was time to “look forward.”

Johnathan Shiflett, a spokesman for Parson, said the governor would “carefully consider the issue of pardoning Mr. Williams, as he has done with all other death penalty cases during his administration, but no decision has been made.” Parson, a former county sheriff, has presided over 11 executions and has never issued a pardon.

In addition to Dunn, who spent 34 years behind bars for the death of a 15-year-old St. Louis boy, Missouri law allowing prosecutors to appeal convictions led to the release of two other men – Kevin Strickland and Lamar Johnson. Bailey was not attorney general when Strickland's case came up for hearing, but his office opposed overturning Dunn and Johnson's convictions.

Bailey also opposed efforts to overturn the sentence against Sandra Hemme, who served 43 years in prison for murder. However, that case was decided by appeals, not a motion by prosecutors. In June, a judge ruled that Hemme should be released. Bailey filed several appeals to try to keep her behind bars, but Hemme was released in July.

Strickland was released in 2021 after serving more than 40 years for three murders in Kansas City after a judge ruled he was wrongfully convicted in 1979. In 2023, a judge in St. Louis overturned Johnson's conviction. He served nearly 28 years for a murder he always claimed he did not commit.

Williams is the first death row inmate to have his claim of innocence heard in court since the law was passed in 2021. He has the support of another former death row inmate, Joseph Amrine, who spent 17 years on death row before being released in 2003 after the Missouri Supreme Court ruled there was no credible evidence linking him to the killing of another inmate.

“The state has nothing to gain from killing the wrong person,” Amrine said in a statement. “I hope the Attorney General's Office can change its approach and recognize that people are affected by its actions.”

Prosecutors at Williams' trial said he broke into Gayle's suburban St. Louis home on Aug. 11, 1998, heard water running in the shower and found a large butcher knife. When Gayle came down the stairs, she was stabbed 43 times. Her purse and her husband's laptop were stolen. Gayle, who was white, was a social worker and had previously worked as a reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Authorities said Williams stole a jacket to hide blood on his shirt. Williams' girlfriend asked him why he would wear a jacket on a hot day. The girlfriend said she later saw the laptop in the car and Williams sold it a day or two later.

Prosecutors also relied on the testimony of Henry Cole, who was incarcerated with Williams in a St. Louis cell in 1999 while Williams was incarcerated on other charges. Cole told prosecutors that Williams confessed to the murder and provided details about it.

Williams' lawyers responded that the girlfriend and Cole were convicted felons with a $10,000 reward.