Marcellus Williams Executed After U.S. Supreme Court Declines to Intervene

Marcellus Williams, a Missouri inmate on death row since 2001, was executed as scheduled on Tuesday, Sept. 24.

Williams died by lethal injection on Sept. 24 at 6 p.m. CT. after his murder conviction for the 1998 stabbing death of newspaper reporter Felicia Gayle. Earlier Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court denied a stay of execution, reports NBC News and the Associated Press.

The execution was carried out at Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center in Bonne Terre, Mo., reports Fox2Now. Before his execution, Williams released a statement reading, “All Praise Be To Allah In Every Situation!!!”

Gayle, a journalist at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, was found brutally murdered inside her gated community home in University City, Mo., on Aug. 11, 1998, PEOPLE previously reported. Investigators later determined that Gayle had been stabbed at least 43 times, dying from 16 wounds to her head, neck, chest and abdomen.

Williams had long maintained his innocence in the killing. In late August, his lawyers appeared before a Missouri judge seeking to overturn his conviction and death sentence at an evidentiary hearing. According to the Innocence Project, his final motion was denied after “the discovery that the trial prosecutor had contaminated potentially exculpatory DNA evidence.”

The St. Louis County Prosecutor’s Office, which convicted Williams, now supports his claims of innocence. In a 73-page joint brief filed over the weekend, the county prosecutors and defense lawyers agree there is no forensic evidence tying Williams to the 1998 stabbing death of Felicia Gayle.

A jury of 11 White people and 1 Black person convicted Williams in 2001 of first-degree murder, first-degree burglary, armed criminal action, and robbery. The Innocence Project claims the prosecutor had removed six qualified Black prospective jurors from the pool using peremptory challenges.

Explaining those challenges in court in August, the prosecutor at the time, Keith Larner testified, per the joint brief, that he struck one Black juror because he thought the man resembled Williams, who is also Black, saying they looked like brothers, in part because they were Black men who wore glasses, and had “piercing eyes.”

Republican Gov. Mike Parson said in a recent statement after blocking the motion that “no jury nor court, including at the trial, appellate, and Supreme Court levels, have ever found merit in Mr. Williams’ innocence claims,” USA Today reports.

Williams’ attorney, Tricia Rojo Bushnell, said in a statement shared on behalf of the Innocence Project, “Missouri is poised to execute an innocent man, an outcome that calls into question the legitimacy of the entire criminal justice system.”

Williams was the third Missouri inmate executed this year. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, Williams was the 15th person to be executed in the U.S.