ACTION ALERT - Stop the Execution of Marcellus Williams

Earlier in June, the Missouri Supreme Court set an execution date of September 24th at 6pm for defendant Marcellus “Khaliifah” Williams, despite prosecutors insisting that he is completely innocent. It is not the first time the 55-year-old Williams has faced execution. On two separate occasions, Williams' execution was halted to conduct further investigation and DNA testing. The results, including DNA on the murder weapon, show no connection between him and the crime.

However, Missouri Governor Mike Parsons (R) is refusing to pardon Williams, setting the stage for him to be put to death for a crime he does not appear to have committed.

Williams, who has always maintained his innocence, was originally convicted in 1998 after being accused of breaking into the home of Lisha Gayle, a social worker and one-time St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter. Prosecutors at the time alleged that Williams heard the shower running, found a butcher knife, and stabbed when she came downstairs.

On August 22nd, 2017, hours before his scheduled execution, former Governor Eric Greitens enacted a stay and ordered a board of inquiry to look into Williams' case. Last June, newly elected Parsons lifted the stay and dissolved the board, claiming that another six-year delay would defer justice and leave the victim’s family in “limbo," and instead chose to ignore the findings from the report created by the five-member board put in place by Greitens.

Parsons' decision came despite evidence that Williams never should have been convicted based on the claims of a jailhouse informant and an ex-girlfriend who was herself seeking to avoid prison time, The case against Mr. Williams turned on the testimony of those two unreliable witnesses who were incentivized by promises of leniency in their own pending criminal cases and reward money. In capital cases, false testimony from incentivized witnesses is the leading cause of wrongful convictions, with informant testimony present in 49.5% of wrongful convictions since the mid-1970s, according to the Center on Wrongful Convictions.

In a court filing earlier this year, the office of St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell said that there was no way that Williams could have killed Gayle. According to the filing, three DNA experts "each has independently concluded that Mr. Williams is excluded as the source of the male DNA on the handle of the murder weapon.” There has never been any physical evidence introduced in the case linking Williams to the crime.

In working with the Midwest Innocence Project, there are less than 100 days to stop the execution of an innocent person. Please visit "Stop the September 24 Execution of Marcellus Williams, an Innocent Man" and sign the petition and help prevent this egregious miscarriage of justice from being carried out. You can also read more about Marcellus Williams' fight for his innocence from his page at the Innocence Project website.