September 25, 2024
On Aug. 11, 1998, Felicia “Licia” Gayle, a former reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, was found stabbed to death in her suburban St. Louis home. Though forensic evidence at the crime scene included fingerprints, footprints, hair and DNA on a kitchen knife, the investigation stretched on for more than a year without an arrest. Marcellus Williams was ultimately convicted of the murder, despite the fact that his DNA did not match the forensic evidence recovered from the crime scene. His conviction was built upon testimony from two unreliable witnesses who had incentives to point the finger at Williams: reward money and a bargain for shorter sentences in their own criminal cases. (Fun fact: according to data from the National Registry of Exonerations at the University of Michigan, jailhouse informant testimony played a role in nearly one-quarter of death penalty exoneration cases).
Persuaded by arguments that new DNA testing exonerated Williams, then-Missouri Governor Eric Greitens appointed a board of inquiry to investigate Williams’ claims of innocence. The board was abruptly disbanded in 2023 by Greitens’s successor, Mike Parson, before it issued a final report.
In recent months, St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell became among the staunchest supporters of Williams’s claim after a DNA analysis excluded Williams as the source of DNA on the murder weapon. Bell’s office proposed to spare Williams the death penalty with an “Alford plea,” which would allow Williams to plead guilty without admitting to the crime and result in life in prison. The state Supreme Court and Bailey blocked the deal. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to intervene, and om Tuesday, Williams was executed.
Last year, Gov. Parson said it was “time to move forward” with the execution.
Why worry about such things as actual innocence?