Death row inmate in Missouri agrees to new deal that calls for life without parole

CLAYTON, Missouri (AP) — A Missouri death row inmate on Wednesday withdrew his plea of ​​innocence and entered a new no-confirmation plea, which calls for a new sentence: life in prison without the possibility of parole.

But the Missouri Attorney General's Office disagrees with the new ruling and will appeal to move the case forward. Execution scheduled for September 24 by Marcellus Williams.

The complicated turn of events occurred on the day that St. Louis District Judge Bruce Hinton was scheduled to preside over a hearing requested by Prosecutor Wesley Bell The aim was to overturn Williams' conviction for the premeditated murder of Lisha Gayle in 1998. Bell had relied on DNA tests that were not available at the time of the crime and which found the DNA of another person – but not Williams' – on the murder weapon.

After a long delay during which lawyers met behind closed doors, Matthew Jacober, a special prosecutor in the St. Louis County District Attorney's Office, announced that even more recent DNA tests released Monday showed contamination from the handling of the gun by a former assistant district attorney and investigator, and that the tainted evidence could not prove that anyone else could have been the killer.

“The murder weapon was handled without following the prescribed procedures,” said Jacober. The improper handling occurred several years before Bell took office.

Williams agreed to an Alford plea, which is not an admission of guilt but acknowledges that there is enough evidence for a conviction. As part of an agreement with St. Louis County prosecutors, Williams entered the plea on Wednesday. He will be sentenced on Thursday – the agreement calls for a life sentence without parole. Williams also agreed not to appeal.

“Marcellus Williams is innocent and nothing in today's agreement changes that fact,” Williams' attorney Tricia Bushnell said in a statement. She noted that Gayle's family supports reversing the death penalty and that the family's confession brings “some degree of finality.”

But the confession does not guarantee that Williams will not be executed. Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey is appealing to the Missouri Supreme Court to move forward with the execution, arguing that a district court does not have the authority to overrule the decision of the state Supreme Court that set the execution date.

“Throughout all of these legal games, the defense created a false narrative of innocence to get a convicted murderer off death row and achieve their political goals,” Bailey said in a statement. “Because the defense failed to do its due diligence and examine the evidence supposedly supporting its case, the victims have been forced to relive their terrible loss over and over again for the past six years.”

Williams, 55, was Hours before the execution in August 2017 When then-Governor Eric Greitens, a Republican, granted a stay after a DNA test that was unavailable 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.

A 2021 Missouri law 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.

The Missouri Supreme Court set the September execution date for June 4, hours after ruling that Republican Governor Mike Parson was right to dissolved a committee of inquiry von Greitens after he prevented 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.”

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 challenge convictions led to the release of two other men – Kevin Strickland And Lamar JohnsonBailey was not attorney general when Strickland's case came up for hearing, but his office opposed overturning the convictions of Dunn and Johnson.

Bailey also opposed efforts to overturn the ruling against Sandra Hemmewho served 43 years in prison for murder, although that case was decided by appeals, not a motion by prosecutors. A judge ruled in June 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 1979In 2023, a judge in St. Louis overturned Johnson's conviction. He served nearly 28 years for a murder he always said he had not committed.

Williams was the first death row inmate to have his claim of innocence brought to court since the 2021 law was passed. Several other people who have been acquitted of crimes were in the courtroom to support him, including another former death row inmate. Joseph Amrine spent 17 years on death row before he was released in 2003 after the Missouri Supreme Court ruled that there was no credible evidence linking him to the killing of another inmate.

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.