Marcellus Williams, 55, convicted of killing a former St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter, Felicia Gale, in her University City home, was executed.
Williams died by lethal injection for the 1998 murder of Gale. His execution sparked protests across Missouri, including in St. Louis and the state Capitol.
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Williams was executed at 6:01 p.m. at a state prison in Bonne Terre. The lethal injection of pentobarbital was administered at 6:03 p.m., and he was pronounced dead just five minutes later. Throughout the years, Williams consistently maintained his innocence in Gale’s murder.
Prosecutors said that on August 11, 1998, Williams took a bus to University City, where he sought a house to break into. He entered Felicia Gale’s home and allegedly attacked her, stabbing her more than 40 times with a butcher knife. Gale, a former Post-Dispatch reporter and social worker, died from her injuries.
While imprisoned on unrelated charges between April and June 1999, Williams allegedly confessed to a cellmate that he had killed Gale.
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The clemency petition emphasised that Gayle’s relatives wanted Williams’ sentence commuted to life without the possibility of parole, saying, “The family defines closure as Marcellus being allowed to live. Marcellus’ execution is not necessary.”
“No juror nor judge has ever found Williams’ innocence claim to be credible,” Parson said in a statement.
Despite his insistence that he was innocent and claims of mishandled evidence, appeals and protests, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected last-minute efforts to halt execution.
Williams’ attorney, Tricia Bushnell, said in a statement, “Tonight, Missouri lynched another innocent Black man,” NAACP President Derrick Johnson said in a statement.
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St. Louis County Prosecutor Wesley Bell acknowledged that many feel the outcome did not serve justice, but hoped it would bring closure after years of delays.
Bell emphasized that no judge or juror had ever found Williams’ innocence claims credible.
“The so-called ‘pro-life’ members of the Supreme Court have condemned a man to die by execution despite overwhelming evidence exonerating him,” Charlotte Clymer, a U.S. Army veteran and activist, posted on X. “These people don’t care about life. They only care about control.”
“The state of Missouri and our nation’s legal system failed Marcellus Williams, and as long as we uphold the death penalty, we continue to perpetuate this depravity—where an innocent person can be killed in the name of justice,” Bush, a progressive, added.
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Marcellus Williams became the 139th person executed in Missouri since 1938. None of Felicia Gale’s family attended the execution, though Williams’ son and two of his lawyers were present.