What to Know About the Execution of Death Row Inmate Marcellus Williams Amid Public Outcry

By Rebecca Schneid, Time

Marcellus Williams was executed by the state of Missouri on Tuesday, Sept. 24, despite concerns citing his potential innocence. Williams died by lethal injection shortly after 6 p.m. at a Missouri state prison in Bonne Terre, St. Francois County. He was 55 years old.

In the aftermath of his death, there has been widespread condemnation, especially since the execution was not supported by the prosecution nor the victim’s family.

Williams was convicted and sentenced to death in 2001 for the 1998 murder of Felicia Gayle, a social worker and well-known St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter, who was killed in her home.

The St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office urged officials and courts to call off the execution over concerns regarding the trial’s jury selection (the vast majority of the jury was white) and potential racial bias—Williams was Black, while Gayle was white. Furthermore, DNA evidence did not tie Williams to the murder.

“Even for those who disagree on the death penalty, when there is a shadow of a doubt of any defendant’s guilt, the irreversible punishment of execution should not be an option,” St. Louis County’s Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell said in a statement, according to the New York Times.

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