Missouri judge rejects Marcellus Williams' claim of innocence as he faces execution

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A judge on Thursday declined to consider the conviction and death sentence against Marcellus Williamsa Missouri man is scheduled to be executed later this month for stabbing a woman to death in 1998, although there are doubts about DNA evidence on the knife used in the attack.

St. Louis County Circuit Court Judge Bruce Hilton presided over a Evidence hearing last month questioned Williams' guilt. Williams, 55, was convicted of the murder of Lisha Gayle, a social worker and former reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. His execution by The lethal injection is scheduled for September 24 unless the courts or Republican Governor Mike Parson intervene.

“Every error raised by Williams on appeal, post-conviction review, and habeas corpus review has been rejected by the Missouri courts,” Hilton wrote. “There is no basis for a court to find Williams innocent, and no court has made such a finding. Williams is guilty of premeditated murder and was sentenced to death.”

Williams' attorney, Tricia Bushnell, said in a statement that the Midwest Innocence Project “will continue to pursue every possible option to prevent the wrongful execution of Mr. Williams. There is still time for the courts or Governor Parson to ensure that Missouri does not commit the irreparable injustice of executing an innocent man.”

The Missouri Attorney General's office did not respond to requests for comment.

In January, Democratic St. Louis County Attorney Wesley Bell cited questions about DNA evidence on the murder weapon to request a hearing to overturn Williams' conviction. Bell said the evidence suggested another person's DNA was on the butcher knife used to kill Gayle.

Bell expressed his “disappointment” with Hilton's verdict, pointing out that Gayle's family members had said they did not want Williams to be executed.

“I continue to share their views today,” Bell said in a statement. “I will continue to work with others who believe the evidence in this case does not justify an execution to prevent that outcome.”

Bell brought the challenge under a Missouri Law 2021 The law allows prosecutors to ask a court to review a verdict they believe is unjust. This, along with the setting of an execution date, meant that Williams faced everything from having his conviction overturned and released to having the verdict upheld and facing execution.

Despite Bell's request, the Missouri Supreme Court in June set an execution date of September 24. Then, at Bell's request, a hearing was scheduled for August to consider the DNA evidence.

But just before the August 21 hearing, a new DNA report revealed that the DNA evidence was contaminated because St. Louis County District Attorney's Office officials had handled the knife without gloves before the original trial in 2001.

Because the DNA evidence had been destroyed, attorneys representing Williams from the Midwest Innocence Project reached a compromise with prosecutors: in exchange for a new life sentence without parole, Williams would enter a new plea of ​​first-degree murder.

Hilton signed the agreement. Gayle's family did too. However, the Missouri Attorney General's Office did not.

At the urging of Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey, the Missouri Supreme Court blocked the agreement and ordered Hilton to proceed with the evidentiary hearing on August 28.

Jonathan Potts, a lawyer for Williams, said during the hearing that the mishandling of the murder weapon was devastating for Williams because it “destroyed his last and best chance” to prove his innocence.

Hilton agreed in his judgment.

“In light of this report, (Williams) fails to demonstrate that the genetic material on the knife handle can provide a basis for 'clear and convincing evidence' of Williams' innocence,” Hilton wrote.

Deputy Attorney General Michael Spillane said additional evidence pointed to his guilt.

“You describe the evidence in this case as weak. It was overwhelming,” Spillane said at the hearing.

Prosecutors in Williams' original case said he broke into Gayle's home on August 11, 1998, heard water running in the shower and found a large butcher knife. As Gayle came down the stairs, she was stabbed 43 times. Her purse and her husband's laptop were stolen.

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 testimony from Henry Cole, who was in a cell with Williams in 1999 when Williams was incarcerated on other charges. Cole told prosecutors that Williams confessed to the murder and provided details about it.

Williams' lawyers responded that both the girlfriend and Cole had been convicted of serious crimes and were asking for a $10,000 reward.

Three other men – Christopher Dunn, Lamar Johnson And Kevin Strickland — were released after decades in prison under Missouri's 2021 law.

Williams was close to execution once before. In August 2017, just hours before his scheduled death, then-Governor Eric Greitens, a Republican, a stay granted after examining the same DNA evidence that led Bell to seek to overturn the conviction.

A rising star in Missouri Democratic politics, Bell defeated incumbent U.S. Representative Cori Bush participated in a primary this month and is considered a clear favorite for the general election in November.

Williams is black, and at the hearing, his accuser, Keith Larner, was asked why the jury had only one black juror. Larner said he had rejected only three potential black jurors, including one who he said looked like Williams.

Williams' trial attorney, Joseph Green, told Hilton that during the trial, Williams also represented a man who killed his wife and injured several others in a 1992 shooting at the St. Louis County Courthouse. That case distracted him from his work on Williams' defense, Green said at the hearing.

“I don't think he got our best,” said Green, now a judge.