This picture obtained on 22 August 2017, courtesy of the Missouri Division of Corrections, reveals death-row inmate Marcellus Williams. Williams was convicted of fatally stabbing a lady greater than 40 instances throughout a theft at her dwelling within the Midwestern state. (Handout / Missouri Division of Corrections / AFP)
- Marcellus Williams, regardless of sustaining his innocence and
assist from civil rights teams, was executed in Missouri for the 1998 homicide
of Felicia Gayle. - Regardless of public outcry and DNA proof suggesting
Williams’s innocence, each the Missouri Supreme Courtroom and the US Supreme Courtroom
denied stays of execution. - Governor Michael Parson acknowledged the sentence was upheld at
all judicial ranges.
Two males on demise row in the US have been executed
Tuesday, together with a Black man convicted of homicide who had maintained his
innocence and drawn assist from civil rights teams.
Marcellus Williams, 55, was sentenced to demise within the
midwestern state of Missouri for the 1998 killing of Felicia Gayle, a former
newspaper reporter.
He was pronounced useless at 18:10 native time Tuesday,
based on the Missouri Division of Corrections.
Travis Mullis, 38, was additionally put to demise in Huntsville,
Texas, for stomping his three-month-old son, Alijah Mullis, to demise in 2008.
“I do remorse the choice to take the lifetime of my son, I
apologise to the mom of my son, the sufferer’s household,” Mullis stated in
his final assertion.
Each males have been executed by deadly injection, elevating the
whole variety of US executions this 12 months to 16.
Williams has insisted he’s harmless, and the NAACP civil
rights group had urged Governor Michael Parson to remain his execution.
Parson on Tuesday stated that Williams’s execution in Missouri
would go forward regardless of protests.
“No jury nor courtroom, together with on the trial, appellate,
and Supreme Courtroom ranges, have ever discovered advantage in Mr. Williams’s innocence
declare. On the finish of the day, his responsible verdict and sentence of capital
punishment have been upheld,” Parson stated in an announcement.
The US Supreme Courtroom had additionally rejected a last-ditch request
to remain Williams’s execution on Tuesday.
British billionaire Richard Branson, who purchased a full-page
advert within the Kansas Metropolis Star newspaper decrying a “devastating
miscarriage of justice,” mourned Williams’s execution on social media.
“It is a shameful day for Missouri, and a shameful day
for Governor Mike Parson,” Branson wrote on X.
Marcellus Williams was killed immediately by the state of Missouri for against the law he didn’t commit. It’s a shameful day for Missouri, and a shameful day for Governor Mike Parson, who failed in his obligation to guard an harmless man from injustice.
— Richard Branson (@richardbranson) September 24, 2024
Felicia Gayle was discovered useless at her St. Louis dwelling in
Missouri, stabbed 43 instances by a kitchen knife throughout what seemed to be a
housebreaking gone mistaken.
Williams, who had earlier convictions for housebreaking and
theft, was convicted on the testimony of a former jail cellmate and an
ex-girlfriend, although his DNA was not discovered on the knife or on the crime scene.
His execution was stayed by the Missouri Supreme Courtroom in
2015, and once more by the state’s then-governor Eric Greitens in 2017, following
the invention of male DNA on the knife that didn’t match Williams.
This 12 months, native prosecutors initiated proceedings to
overturn his conviction. Nevertheless, on Monday, the state Supreme Courtroom dominated in a
unanimous resolution that it could not cease Williams’s execution.
The demise penalty has been abolished in 23 US states, whereas
six others – Arizona, California, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Tennessee –
have moratoriums in place.