The son of death row inmate Marcellus Williams revealed his final, harrowing plea to the U.S. Supreme Court ahead of his father’s execution in Missouri on Tuesday night.
In an interview with KSDK News, Marcellus Williams Jr. said he is praying for a miracle to stop the scheduled execution of his 55-year-old father for the 1998 murder of Felicia “Lisha” Gayle, a newspaper reporter who was found stabbed to death in her home.
“I hope Allah will release my father from his slavery and spare his life,” Williams Jr. said.
He added that he wants the U.S. Supreme Court to “see that this is murder on their part and that this is wrong.”
“I believe my father is truly innocent and further investigation is needed.”
Marcellus Williams, 55, is scheduled to be executed in Missouri on Tuesday night.
Prosecutors at Williams’ original trial in 2001 said Williams broke into Gayle’s home on Aug. 11, 1998, heard water running in the shower and grabbed a butcher knife.
When she came downstairs, Gayle was stabbed 43 times and her purse and husband’s laptop were stolen.
Authorities said Williams then stole a jacket to hide the blood on his shirt, prompting his girlfriend at the time to ask him why he would wear a jacket on a hot day.
That girlfriend later reported that she saw the stolen laptop in Williams’ car and that he sold it to a neighbor a day or two later.
Prosecutors also cited testimony from Henry Cole, who shared a cell with Williams in 1999 when Williams was in prison on unrelated charges.
Cole told prosecutors that Williams confessed to the murder and provided details about it.
But defense attorneys countered by saying that both Williams’ girlfriend and Cole had been convicted of felonies and wanted a $10,000 reward for information about Gayle’s death.
Felicia ‘Lisha’ Gayle, a journalist who was found stabbed to death in her home on August 11, 1998
Questions have since been raised about the integrity of the trial that led to Williams’ conviction.
His lawyers said one black juror was excluded from the jury pool, which included 11 white jurors and one black juror, prompting an investigation into the case under former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens, who put an indefinite hold on Williams’ execution.
He formed a board of former judges to review the case and determine whether Williams should be granted clemency.
The board investigated Williams’ case for the next six years but was abruptly shut down under current Gov. Michael Parson.
Williams’ lawyers are now arguing before the U.S. Supreme Court that Parson trampled on Williams’ right to due process by ending the investigation.
“The Governor’s actions have violated Williams’ constitutional rights and created an exceptionally urgent need for the Court’s attention,” the attorneys argued in a motion to stay the execution.
They went on to point out that even the St. Louis County District Attorney’s Office announced earlier this year that there were constitutional errors in Williams’ original trial, including the removal of a potential black juror because of his race.
“We have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to stay Marcellus Williams’ execution on Tuesday based on a disclosure by the trial prosecutor that he removed at least one black juror before the trial because of his race,” said Tricia Rojo Bushnell, Williams’ attorney.
‘We were stunned to learn that ‘part of the reason’ for striking a juror was that he was a young black man with glasses, so he and Mr. Williams ‘looked like brothers.’
“Under our Constitution, there is a right to a fair trial before a jury of our peers,” he said. “The prosecutor removed this juror because he resembled a colleague of Mr. Williams.
‘St. Louis County District Attorney Wesley Bell has admitted that a constitutional error was committed because of this racial bias during jury selection. We hope that the Supreme Court will stay Mr. Williams’ execution based on this new evidence of racial bias and the other serious questions about the integrity of Mr. Williams’ conviction.’
