Above photo: Marcellus Williams. Screenshot from CNN.
Missouri courts are denying Marcellus Williams his right to a hearing where he could present DNA evidence that proves his innocence.
Marcellus Williams, who has spent 24 years of his life on death row for a murder DNA evidence proves someone else committed, could have an execution date set as early as next month following Missouri Gov. Mike Parson’s decision in June to lift his stay of execution and dissolve his innocence investigation.
Williams, 54, was convicted of first-degree murder in the 1998 death of Lisha Gayle, a St. Louis Post Dispatch reporter, who was stabbed 16 times during a robbery in her home.
During the trial, Williams’ conviction was based on the testimony of two incentivized witnesses: Henry Cole, a prison informant who was given $5,000 by prosecutors and no prison sentence for his 1996 armed robbery of a bank in exchange for his testimony, and Laura Asaro, Williams’ ex-girlfriend who had a history of working with police and who lied under oath about her arrest history; she also received money. According to the Innocence Project, informant testimony is one of the leading contributing factors in wrongful convictions nationally, playing a role in nearly one in five DNA exonerations.
In 2016, post-conviction DNA testing of the murder weapon excluded Williams as the perpetrator. Despite the DNA Testing results proving that he did not commit the murder, Williams was denied his right to a hearing where he could present the evidence. Three renowned DNA experts have concluded that Mr. Williams is not the source of the DNA on the knife handle. However, no court has heard and admitted the evidence, and Williams remains on death row.
“Mr. Williams’ case is riddled with unreliable incentivized testimonies and a complete absence of physical evidence linking him to the crime scene,” wrote Alicia Maule of the Innocence Project in a story published in August. “The lack of consideration by any court of the exculpatory DNA evidence, which indisputably excluded Mr. Williams as a contributor, calls into question the validity of his conviction.”
In 2017, following the emergence of strong exculpatory evidence, former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens issued a stay of execution for Williams, just hours before the time Williams was scheduled to be executed. Williams’ execution had been halted one other time before.
That year, Greitens also created a Board of Inquiry to investigate Williams’ innocence. However, in June 2023, Gov. Parson dissolved both the stay of execution and the board of inquiry, ending its investigation of Williams’ innocence.
In August 2023, the Innocence Project, Midwest Innocence Project, and Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner, all of whom represent Williams, sued Gov. Parson on behalf of Marcellus Williams for these actions. They are urging St. Louis County Attorney Wesley Bell to intervene and stop the execution.
Williams’ legal team is also currently petitioning the state of Missouri to stop his execution.
According to the National Registry of Exonerations, there have been 3,433 exonerations since 1989, with 592 DNA exonerations to date. Missouri has been the site of 58 exonerations, and the years all exonerees in the state lost totals to 680 combined. Wrongful convictions also disproportionately harm Black people, as they make up 53% of the exoneree population.
“With the weight of this new evidence and the unreliability of the witnesses who testified against Mr. Williams, his conviction must be reevaluated to ensure that justice is truly served,” wrote Maule of the Innocence Project. “His legal team … continues to fight to stop his execution and for his exoneration, hoping that justice will eventually prevail.”