Missouri prepares to execute Marcellus Williams despite prosecutors saying he is "actually innocent"

Just one day before a Missouri death row inmate is scheduled to be executed, the Missouri Supreme Court will hear his case and decide whether to delay his execution for a third time.

Marcellus Williams was convicted of first-degree murder in 2001 and sentenced to death in 2003 for the killing of 42-year-old Felicia Gayle in her home just outside of St. Louis. In January, St. Louis County’s top prosecutor, Wesley Bell, filed a motion to vacate Williams' conviction, stating that "new evidence suggests that Mr. Williams is actually innocent." The Missouri Supreme Court will hear the case on Monday, just 24 hours before Williams’ scheduled execution on Sept. 24 at 6 p.m. CT. 

Williams has long professed his innocence and argues that his due process rights were denied throughout his legal battle. 

Following Gayle’s murder in 1998, two witnesses named Williams as the culprit. Despite no forensic evidence tying him to the crime, a jury convicted Williams of murder and burglary. His attorneys argued that both witnesses — who have since died —benefitted from cooperating with prosecutors. 

Williams was twice before set to be executed, in January 2015 and August 2017, but both times the killing was delayed to conduct further DNA testing. His second execution was halted indefinitely for further investigation by former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens, a Republican, just hours before the execution was scheduled to take place.

But when Gov. Michael Parsons took office in 2017, the Republican “abruptly terminated the process,” just putting the 55-year-old back on death row. Williams’ attorneys argue that the governor’s decision violates William’s constitutional rights. 

“Taking the life of Marcellus Williams would be an unequivocal statement that when a White woman is killed, a Black man must die. And any Black man will do,” NAACP president Derrick Johnson wrote in an open letter to Parsons.

"Governor Parson, you have the power to prove that Missouri is better than its ugly history of racism and unspeakable treatment of its Black residents. The NAACP urges you to do the right thing – stop the execution of Marcellus Williams,” the letter reads.

Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., has also sent a letter to Parson asking him to grant Williams clemency. "You have it in your power to save a life today by granting clemency to a man who has already unjustly served 24 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. I am urging you to use it,” she writes in the letter.

Parson, who is also a former sheriff, has been in office for 11 executions and has never granted clemency.