Death row inmate in Missouri gets second chance at trial – could save his life

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Marcellus Williams thought DNA evidence would be enough to get him off Missouri's death row, maybe even out of prison. A decades-old prosecutor's mistake puts his life in the balance.

Williams, 55, is scheduled to be executed on Sept. 24. He is accused of stabbing Lisha Gayle to death in the St. Louis suburb of University City in 1998. St. Louis District Judge Bruce Hilton will preside over an evidentiary hearing Wednesday challenging Williams' guilt. But the key piece of evidence supporting Williams is a DNA test that is no longer feasible.

A 2021 law in Missouri allows prosecutors to file a motion to overturn a conviction they believe was unjust. St. Louis County Prosecutor Wesley Bell filed such a motion in January after reviewing DNA tests that were not available at the time of Williams' conviction in 2001. Those tests showed that Williams' DNA was not on the murder weapon. A hearing was scheduled for Aug. 21.

Instead of a hearing, lawyers met behind closed doors for hours until Matthew Jacober, a special prosecutor in Bell's office, announced that the DNA evidence was contaminated and therefore it was impossible to prove that anyone else could have been the killer.

New tests released last week found that DNA from Edward Magee, an investigator for the state's attorney's office when Williams was on trial, was found on the knife. The tests also failed to rule out the original prosecutor who handled the case, Keith Larner.

“Further investigation and testing has shown that the evidence was not properly handled at the time of Williams' conviction,” Jacober told the judge. “Therefore, DNA was likely removed and re-added between 1998 and 2001.”

Williams' lawyers and the prosecution then reached a compromise: Williams would plead guilty again to premeditated murder and in return receive a life sentence without the possibility of parole. Hilton signed the agreement. Gayle's family did so as well.

Lawyers for the Missouri Attorney General's Office did not do so.

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.

The execution is still pending, although it is less than four weeks away. Hilton is expected to make a decision in mid-September.

Williams was close to execution once before. In August 2017, just hours before his scheduled lethal injection, then-Republican Governor Eric Greitens granted a reprieve after tests showed that DNA on the knife matched that of an unknown person.

That evidence prompted Bell to reinvestigate the case. Bell, a rising star in Missouri Democratic politics, defeated incumbent U.S. Rep. Cori Bush in a primary this month and is considered a clear favorite for the general election in November.

Three other men – Christopher Dunn last month, Lamar Johnson and Kevin Strickland – were released after decades in prison after prosecutors successfully challenged their convictions under the 2021 law.

Prosecutors at Williams' trial said he broke into Gayle's home on August 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 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 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 the girlfriend and Cole were convicted felons with a $10,000 reward.