Missouri sets execution date for death row inmate Marcellus Williams, despite doubts over DNA evidence

Missouri has scheduled the execution of death row inmate Marcellus Williams, even though he was never granted a hearing for an innocence claim that some officials believe could be legitimate.

The 55-year-old was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death in 2003 for the killing of Felicia Gayle at her home in University City, a St. Louis suburb, five years earlier, court filings show. Prosecutors alleged at the time that he burglarized Gayle's residence before stabbing her to death, and leaving with a jacket that he used to hide his bloodied shirt along with her purse and her husband's laptop. Gayle was a social worker and, previously, a reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. She was 42 when she was killed.

Williams' girlfriend later testified that she discovered the stained shirt and the items belonging to Gayle in the trunk of the car he drove to pick her up that day, and said Williams confessed to murdering Gayle when she confronted him about it, according to the filings. Those documents also allege that Williams, while jailed on unrelated charges in St. Louis, again confessed to the murder during a conversation with his cellmate.

More recent developments in Williams' case have called his initial convicted into question. Hours before Missouri was set to execute him in 2017, former Gov. Eric Greitens ordered an investigation into the evidence originally used to convict him, which paused the execution process. Greitens said in his order that contemporary forensic tests had revealed DNA on the murder weapon did not match Williams, and noted that the testing did not exist at the time of his criminal trial. The former governor called for a board of inquiry, composed of retired judges, to examine Williams' innocence claim. 

For reasons that were not made clear, the inquiry board did not reach a conclusion in their investigation, and current Missouri Gov. Mike Parson ordered the panel to dissolve in a move last summer that pushed forward the state's plan for Williams' execution. Then, in January of this year, St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell filed a motion to vacate Williams' sentence altogether. 

The motion referred to a Missouri law allowing a prosecuting attorney to move to vacate or set aside a conviction "at any time if he or she has information that the convicted person may be innocent or may have been erroneously convicted." Passed in 2021, the law gives prosectors standing to request hearings in cases where they believe there is evidence of a wrongful conviction. 

Bell pointed to the fact that, in the case of Williams, "DNA evidence supporting a conclusion that Mr. Williams was not the individual who stabbed Ms. Gayle has never been considered by a court." But on Tuesday the Missouri Supreme Court still set an execution date for Williams for Sept. 24.

Judge Zel Fisher wrote in the court's unanimous ruling that the "Missouri Constitution vests the governor with exclusive constitutional authority to grant or deny clemency and Williams has no statutory or due process right to the board of inquiry process." Fisher said the Missouri law on which Bell based his motion to vacate did not interfere with that authority.

The Midwest Innocence Project filed a lawsuit on Williams' behalf last August, after Parson dissolved the inquiry board ordered by his predecessor. The organization, with attorneys for Williams' at the national Innocence Project, responded to the Missouri Supreme Court ruling in a statement to CBS News.

"The St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney has asserted that he has clear and convincing evidence that Marcellus Williams is innocent. It is alarming that an execution date has been set in spite of this," the statement read. "To date, no court has ever reviewed the DNA evidence proving Mr. Williams was not the individual who wielded the murder weapon and committed this crime. Yet, the State successfully sought an execution date, highlighting the system's emphasis on finality over innocence. That is not justice."

The organization said it will continue to work with Williams' attorneys to seek a hearing on Bell's motion to vacate and ultimately pursue the inmate's exoneration.

In:
• Wrongful Convictions
• Missouri
• Incarceration
• St. Louis
• Capital Punishment
• Murder

Emily Mae Czachor

Emily Mae Czachor is a reporter and news editor at CBSNews.com. She covers breaking news, often focusing on crime and extreme weather. Emily Mae has previously written for outlets including the Los Angeles Times, BuzzFeed and Newsweek.

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