Today, the US state of Missouri is executing Marcellus Williams, an innocent Black man – for a crime he didn’t commit:
The fact that the USA is about to execute an innocent citizen – they know is innocent, the DA now says is innocent, the evidence proves he is innocent, should be enough for everyone to tear the system down.
Marcellus Williams could be any of us.
Marcellus Williams is all of us.— big nasty 🤠 (@keepaustinnasty) September 22, 2024
On 11th August 1998, Felicia Gayle – a former reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch was found stabbed to death in her home. The suspect left behind:
considerable forensic evidence, including fingerprints, footprints, hair, and trace DNA on the murder weapon, a knife from Ms. Gayle’s kitchen.
They convicted Marcellus Williams of her murder in August 2001. However:
None of this forensic evidence matches Mr. Williams.
DNA evidence found on the murder weapon ‘affirmatively excluded Williams as the perpetrator’:
im fucking distraught that the state can execute someone wrongfully arrested and proven innocent just because they want to. marcellus williams is as close to a perfect victim as you can get, and STILL he’s on death row. states’ rights my ass!! https://t.co/lhxpMJ2OD4
— Emy 🦇🖤 (@alpacapresident) September 22, 2024
The idea that you can be proven innocent with DNA, the DA can ask for your sentence to be overturned, and the state can still murder you is simply mind boggling. I hope the state of Missouri is royally screwed when his family inevitably sues. https://t.co/ox4XsvaAek https://t.co/kGLMUQewgM
— Kenzie Butcher (@KenzButcher) September 23, 2024
Marcellus Williams: onnocent
The prosecutions case against Marcellus Williams was based entirely on the unreliable testimony of two incentivised witnesses.
According to the Innocence Project:
The case against Mr. Williams turned on the testimony of two unreliable witnesses who were incentivized by promises of leniency in their own pending criminal cases and reward money.
They continued:
Both of these individuals were known fabricators; neither revealed any information that was not either included in media accounts about the case or already known to the police. Their statements were inconsistent with their own prior statements, with each other’s accounts, and with the crime scene evidence, and none of the information they provided could be independently verified.
Ignoring the evidence
In 2015, the Missouri Supreme Court stayed Marcellus Williams’s execution. They also appointed a special master to review DNA testing of evidence that could potentially exonerate Williams. This proved that it was not his DNA on the murder weapon.
Then in 2017, the case was sent back to the Missouri Supreme court – without a hearing. This means the court then scheduled his execution without considering the DNA results. On 22 August, governor Eric Greitens gave Williams a stay of execution. This was just hours before the execution.
Under Missouri Law, the stay was to remain in place until the Board of Inquiry concluded its review and issued a formal report.
However, in June 2023, while enquiries were still ongoing, current governor Mike Parson dissolved the board. Missouri attorney general Andrew Bailey then sought a new execution date.
According to the Innocence Project:
Mr. Williams filed a civil suit against Governor Parson because the dissolution of the Board without a report or recommendation violated Missouri law and Mr. Williams’s constitutional rights. After a Cole County judge denied the Governor’s motion to dismiss this lawsuit, the Governor persuaded the Missouri Supreme Court to intervene.
On June 4, 2024, the Missouri Supreme Court dismissed Mr. Williams’s civil lawsuit and immediately scheduled his execution for Sept. 24.
Marcellus Williams’ execution would be a travesty and a miscarriage of justice. His questionable conviction–including DNA evidence pointing to his innocence–makes a clear case that Gov. Parson must halt this execution. The state cannot–must not–take an innocent life.…
— Martin Luther King III (@OfficialMLK3) September 23, 2024
fyi @GovParsonMO has the power to stop the murder of an innocent man but still hasn’t done so https://t.co/UJ1HgSyxdV
— nour (@nourawawdeh_) September 22, 2024
Executing innocent black men
This will not be the first time the US has executed an innocent Black man. Only last week, South Carolina executed Khalil Divine Black Sun Allah – only days after the key witness for the prosecution came forward to say he had lied at trial and they would be killing an innocent man:
This is a travesty but the USA has a history of executing innocent Black men https://t.co/nIWY16Cb9x
— Traveler In This World (@CheWithBlingon) September 24, 2024
A reminder that the system isn’t broken, it’s WORKING the way it’s intended to.
‼️WE MUST TEAR THE SYSTEM DOWN‼️ https://t.co/12zKJZuzst— J.L. Comes / Joey (he/they)✌🏼❤️✨ (@JLComes) September 22, 2024
Currently, the criminal justice industrial complex in the US is racist to its core. From policing and the murders of innocent Black people, right through to the prison and criminal sentencing system. In 2021, black Americans were imprisoned at five times the rate of white Americans. Seven states imprison black residents at more than nine times the rate of white residents.
Yet another execution of an innocent Black man encapsulates how the criminal justice apparatus doesn’t exist to protect Black lives, but to further oppress Black communities:
the most sickening thing is they’ve done this multiple times, multiple people have been executed when it’s been proven they are innocent. beyond reprehensible. https://t.co/BaakHvS2wF
— -poppy- (@mxxnchild_x) September 22, 2024
With so little time until #MarcellusWilliams is set to be executed tomorrow, Sept. 24th at 6 p.m., our best tool is our voice. We must make as much noise as possible in these final hours, as public pressure can make all the difference in the moments leading up to an execution.… pic.twitter.com/faF8uG91T5
— Innocence Project (@innocence) September 23, 2024
They are planning to execute Marcellus Williams today. The Innocence Project have put together a page which tells you how you can help stop it, before its too late. Where’s Michael Schofield when you need him?
Feature image via KSDK News/Youtube
