Marcellus Williams executed for murder of former reporter in Missouri

On Tuesday, Marcellus “Khaliifah” Williams, who killed a former newspaper reporter in 1998, was executed in Missouri, the inmate's lawyer said, despite the prosecutor in the case and the victim's family saying his life should be spared.

Jonathan Potts, one of Williams' defense attorneys, confirmed to USA TODAY that he was executed.

Williams, who has maintained his innocence – a claim supported not only by his defense attorney but also by prosecutors – is now the third inmate executed in Missouri this year and the 15th in the country.

According to the Missouri Department of Corrections, his death was pronounced at 6:10 p.m. following the lethal injection.

“Tonight, we are all witnessing the grotesque abuse of power by the state of Missouri,” Williams' attorney Tricia Rojo Bushnell said in a statement, emphasizing how prosecutors “fought diligently to overturn the conviction and save Mr. Williams' life.”

Williams' son, Marcellus Williams Jr., told KSDK-TV: “This is murder.”

Williams, 55, was convicted of murdering Lisha Gayle, a former police reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch who was killed during a break-in at the suburban St. Louis home she shared with her husband, a doctor, on Aug. 11, 1998. She was stabbed 43 times with a kitchen knife stolen from the couple's home.

There was no DNA analysis linking Williams to the crime scene. In recent months, a prosecutor in the case said the execution should have been called off, and in a clemency petition Gayle's family said they “define closure as letting Marcellus live.”

“Marcellus’ execution is not necessary,” they said.

Nevertheless, Missouri's Republican governor, Mike Parson, and the Missouri Supreme Court on Monday rejected Williams' request for clemency.

And on Tuesday, less than an hour before the execution was set to begin, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to stop the execution, even though the court's three liberal justices, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, said they had stayed Williams' execution.

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Marcellus Williams last meal, last visitors, last breaths

Williams' last meal consisted of chicken wings and hashbrowns, Missouri Department of Corrections spokeswoman Karen Pojmann told USA TODAY.

His last visit was to Imam Jalahii Kacem and lasted about 90 minutes.

Before his death, Williams was asked if he had any final words. Before the execution, the Department of Corrections told USA TODAY what Williams said he planned to say as his final words. They were: “All praise be to Allah in every situation.”

“A friendly and considerate man”

Williams' lead defense attorney said more than a million citizens and religious leaders had pleaded with Parson to commute Marcellus' death sentence.

“This is not fair,” Bushnell said. “And we all need to question any system that allows this to happen.”

She described Williams as a “kind and thoughtful man” who spent his final years supporting those around him in his role as imam.

“We will remember him for his deeply moving poetry and his love and dedication to his family and community,” she said. “Although he longed to return home, he is a thoughtful man who worked hard to overcome the anger, frustration and fear of a wrongful execution by channeling his energy into his faith and finding meaning and connection through Islam. The world would be a worse place without him.”

She further thanked the prosecutor who tried to save Williams' life “for his commitment to truth and justice and all he did to prevent this unspeakable injustice.”

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How was Marcellus Williams executed?

Williams was killed by lethal injection, the most common method of death in the country.

In this state, prisoners sentenced to death can choose between lethal injection and poison gas.

Williams was given a 5-gram dose of pentobarbital under Missouri State lethal injection protocol.

Why was Marcellus Williams convicted?

Williams was found guilty in 2001 of first-degree murder, first-degree burglary and first-degree robbery in connection with Gayle's death. Gayle was described as a “once in a lifetime friend” who looked for the good in people.

Gayle, 42, was taking a shower that morning when someone broke into her home on a private, gated street. He entered the house through the front door after breaking a small window pane, reaching in and unlocking the front door.

Wearing a long purple T-shirt, Gayle left the second floor bathroom and walked down the stairs when she encountered the killer on the landing. At one point, she was stabbed 43 times with a kitchen knife taken from the house.

Later that night, Gayle's husband found his wife's body in the couple's entryway and called 911.

Evidence police collected included bloody shoe prints and fingerprints, a knife sheath and the suspect's hair collected from Gayle's shirt, hands and the floor. Gayle's purse and jacket were missing from the house, as was her husband's laptop.

Williams was convicted and sentenced to death in 2001.

Williams was scheduled to be executed twice, but both executions were stopped.

Williams' execution was already scheduled for January 2015 and August 2017.

Both lethal injections were paused to allow for further DNA testing and investigation. The final stay of execution was ordered by then-Governor Eric Greiten, who appointed a commission of inquiry to investigate the case.

But in the summer of 2023, newly sworn-in Governor Mike Parson dissolved the panel and lifted the stay. The court, Parsons said, would decide Williams' fate, and the Missouri Supreme Court issued a third execution warrant for Williams.

What did Williams argue in his appeals?

On August 21, District Attorney Wesley Bell's office and Williams' attorneys reached an agreement that would allow Williams to enter a new, unconditional guilty plea to first-degree murder in exchange for a life sentence without parole. The victim's husband, Daniel Picus, signed the guilty plea.

Although Bell moved to overturn Williams' murder conviction, state Attorney General Andrew Bailey argued that it should stand and ordered St. Louis County District Judge Bruce Hilton to hold an evidentiary hearing on the matter. He granted the motion.

During an evidentiary hearing on August 28, the retired prosecutor who handled the case admitted that evidence was mishandled in the 1998 trial that could have led to Williams' exoneration.

But on September 12, Hilton declined to overturn Williams' conviction and sentence, despite questions about DNA evidence on the knife used in the attack. On appeal, his defense presented evidence that DNA taken from the knife revealed an unknown male profile and did not match Williams.

“There is no basis for a court to find Williams innocent, and no court has made such a finding,” wrote St. Louis County Circuit Court Judge Bruce Hilton. “Williams is guilty of first-degree murder and was sentenced to death.”

After Parson rejected one of the last attempts to stop the execution on Monday, the governor issued a statement saying, “No jury or court, at the trial, appellate, or Supreme Court levels, has ever found Mr. Williams' claims of innocence to be valid.”

“Death penalty cases are some of the most difficult issues we face in the governor's office, but when it comes down to it, I abide by the law and trust in the integrity of our justice system,” he said.

How many people are currently on death row in Missouri?

Before Williams' death, the last execution had taken place. On June 11, the state executed David Hosier, who had shot Angela Gilpin, his former lover and married mother of two, in 2009.

A fourth execution is also scheduled for this year for Christopher Leroy Collings. He was convicted in 2007 of the rape and murder of nine-year-old Rowan Ford. He is scheduled to die by lethal injection on December 3.

Marcellus Williams executed for murder of former reporter in Missouri

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