JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Legal professionals for a Missouri man scheduled to be executed Tuesday night have filed one other enchantment to the U.S. Supreme Courtroom that alleges there have been racial bias and constitutional errors at his trial.
Marcellus Williams, 55, has lengthy maintained innocence within the 1998 demise of Lisha Gayle, a social employee and former newspaper reporter who was repeatedly stabbed throughout a housebreaking of her suburban St. Louis house. The execution is opposed each by Gayle’s household and the prosecutor’s workplace that put Williams on demise row — an unprecedented mixture.
“The household defines closure as Marcellus being allowed to stay,” the clemency petition said. “Marcellus’ execution isn’t mandatory.”
Williams is amongst inmates in 5 states who’re scheduled to be executed within the span of every week — an unusually excessive quantity that defies a yearslong decline within the use and assist of the demise penalty within the U.S. The primary was carried out Friday in South Carolina. The others are scheduled to happen in Texas on Tuesday, and in Oklahoma and Alabama on Thursday.
Williams’ hopes of getting his sentence commuted to life in jail suffered twin setbacks Monday when, nearly concurrently, Republican Gov. Mike Parson denied clemency and the Missouri Supreme Courtroom declined to grant a keep of execution.
Attorneys engaged on Williams’ behalf filed motions late Monday difficult the state Supreme Courtroom’s resolution.
“We now have requested the U.S. Supreme Courtroom to remain Marcellus Williams’ execution on Tuesday based mostly on a revelation by the trial prosecutor that he eliminated at the least one Black juror earlier than trial based mostly on his race,” Tricia Bushnell, an legal professional for Mr. Williams, stated in a information launch.
The prosecutor within the 2001 homicide case, Keith Larner, testified at an August listening to that he struck one potential Black juror partly as a result of he appeared an excessive amount of like Williams — an announcement which Williams’ attorneys asserted confirmed improper racial bias.
Bushnell stated Larner eliminated six of seven Black potential jurors. The jury finally had 11 white members and one Black member. Larner contended that the jury choice course of was truthful.
The state Supreme Courtroom, in a unanimous resolution Monday afternoon, affirmed a decrease court docket ruling rejecting Williams’ arguments.
“Regardless of practically 1 / 4 century of litigation in each state and federal courts, there isn’t any credible proof of precise innocence or any displaying of a constitutional error undermining confidence within the authentic judgment,” Missouri Supreme Courtroom Choose Zel Fischer wrote.
Parson accused Williams’ attorneys of attempting to “muddy the waters about DNA proof” with claims that courts have repeatedly rejected.
“Nothing from the actual information of this case have led me to consider in Mr. Williams’ innocence,” Parson stated in an announcement.
Parson, a former sheriff, has by no means granted clemency in a demise penalty case. Williams’ execution could be the third in Missouri this yr and the a centesimal because the state resumed executions in 1989.
St. Louis County Prosecuting Legal professional Wesley Bell has sought to put aside Williams’ sentence, citing questions on his guilt. His workplace joined attorneys from the Midwest Innocence Challenge in asking the U.S. Supreme Courtroom to grant a keep.
“Even for many who disagree on the demise penalty, when there’s a shadow of a doubt of any defendant’s guilt, the irreversible punishment of execution shouldn’t be an choice,” Bell stated in an announcement.
This marks the third time Williams has confronted execution. He was lower than every week away from deadly injection in January 2015 when the state Supreme Courtroom referred to as it off, permitting time for his attorneys to pursue extra DNA testing.
He was hours away from being executed in August 2017 when then-Gov. Eric Greitens, a Republican, granted a keep and appointed a panel of retired judges to look at the case. However that panel by no means reached a conclusion.
Questions on DNA proof additionally led Bell to request a listening to difficult Williams’ guilt. However days earlier than the Aug. 21 listening to, new testing confirmed that DNA on the knife belonged to members of the prosecutor’s workplace who dealt with it with out gloves after the unique crime lab checks.
With out DNA proof pointing to any various suspect, Midwest Innocence Challenge attorneys reached a compromise with the prosecutor’s workplace: Williams would enter a brand new, no-contest plea to first-degree homicide in trade for a brand new sentence of life in jail with out parole.
Choose Bruce Hilton signed off on the settlement, as did Gayle’s household. However on the urging of Republican Missouri Legal professional Normal Andrew Bailey, the Missouri Supreme Courtroom blocked the settlement and ordered Hilton to proceed with an evidentiary listening to, which befell Aug. 28.
Hilton dominated on Sept. 12 that the first-degree homicide conviction and demise sentence would stand, noting that Williams’ arguments all had been beforehand rejected. That call was upheld Monday by the state Supreme Courtroom.
Prosecutors at Williams’ authentic trial stated he broke into Gayle’s house on Aug. 11, 1998, heard water operating within the bathe, and located a big butcher knife. Gayle, a former reporter for the St. Louis Publish-Dispatch, was stabbed 43 instances when she got here downstairs. Her purse and her husband’s laptop computer laptop had been stolen.
Authorities stated Williams stole a jacket to hide blood on his shirt. Williams’ girlfriend requested him why he would put on a jacket on a sizzling day. The girlfriend stated she later noticed the purse and laptop computer in his automotive and that Williams offered the pc a day or two later.
Prosecutors additionally cited testimony from Henry Cole, who shared a cell with Williams in 1999 whereas Williams was jailed on unrelated fees. Cole instructed prosecutors Williams confessed to the killing and supplied particulars about it.
Attorneys for Williams stated that fingerprints, a bloody shoeprint, hair and different proof on the crime scene didn’t match Williams.
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Salter reported from O’Fallon, Missouri.
