Thread i found on another board, his execution is scheduled for the 22nd.
Williams—who was convicted and sentenced to death in 2001 by a nearly all-white St. Louis County jury in the highly publicized stabbing death of a former St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter—presented scientific evidence that excluded him as a contributor to DNA on the knife used to kill Felicia Gayle.
One expert concluded that Williams "could not have contributed to the detected [DNA] profile" and the other found "a clear exclusion of Marcellus Williams from the knife handle."
The petition alleged that the "physical evidence collected from the crime scene”—which included fingernail scrapings from the victim, who had been stabbed more than 40 times—“did not match and could not be linked to" Williams.
Williams was convicted and sentenced to death based on the testimony of a jailhouse informant and a prostitute who was an admitted crack addict.
Williams had also previously raised a claim alleging that St. Louis County prosecutors had a pattern and practice of striking black prospective jurors, including 6 of the 7 African Americans it had the opportunity to empanel in his case.
A Missouri Supreme Court justice noted in another St. Louis County capital case "a fairly repetitive pattern" in which St. Louis County "has a substantial African-American community" yet there are "still all white juries and that's not mathematically probable."
- DNA says Marcellus Williams didn't kill Felicia Gayle, but the Missouri Supreme Court wants to let his execution go ahead anyway.
- Felicia Gayle was murdered in 1998. Marcellus Williams was convicted of the crime and sentenced to death in 2001.
- After a series of appeals, an execution date was set for January 28, 2015. Marcellus sought a stay of execution to allow for DNA testing.
- A stay was granted and a judge was appointed to oversee the DNA testing process. The results were clear: Marcellus didn't kill Felicia.
- Two DNA experts testified that DNA from the murder weapon excluded Marcellus as a suspect. The DNA belonged to a third person.
- This evidence was recently presented to the Missouri Supreme Court. Within one day, the court ruled to allow the execution anyway.
- Some lawyers say that they wait outside the courthouse for a few minutes after filing appeals. Judges can reject the appeals sight unseen.
- "Keep the car running." To an outside observer, it looks like that's exactly what happened here.
- It gets worse if you can believe that. None of the physical evidence (fingernail scrapings, hair, footprints) actually matched Marcellus
- How did the prosecutors get a conviction? They had a jailhouse snitch and a crack-addicted prostitute testify against Marcellus.
- What's really going on here? Consider this: the murder occurred in a gated community. The victim was white and Marcellus is black.
- The prosecutors struck 6 of the 7 black potential jurors. They also did not tell defense attorneys about the backgrounds of the witnesses.
- The MO Supreme Court was presented with all of this information and still ruled to allow the execution, taking less than a day to decide.
- Adding insult to injury, the Missouri Supreme Court didn't even issue a written explanation for the hasty decision.
- Here's what you can do now: Call Gov. @EricGreitens at (573) 751-3222. Ask him to stop the execution scheduled for August 22.
- Learn more about this case here: https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/node/6843
Williams—who was convicted and sentenced to death in 2001 by a nearly all-white St. Louis County jury in the highly publicized stabbing death of a former St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter—presented scientific evidence that excluded him as a contributor to DNA on the knife used to kill Felicia Gayle.
One expert concluded that Williams "could not have contributed to the detected [DNA] profile" and the other found "a clear exclusion of Marcellus Williams from the knife handle."
The petition alleged that the "physical evidence collected from the crime scene”—which included fingernail scrapings from the victim, who had been stabbed more than 40 times—“did not match and could not be linked to" Williams.
Williams was convicted and sentenced to death based on the testimony of a jailhouse informant and a prostitute who was an admitted crack addict.
Williams had also previously raised a claim alleging that St. Louis County prosecutors had a pattern and practice of striking black prospective jurors, including 6 of the 7 African Americans it had the opportunity to empanel in his case.
A Missouri Supreme Court justice noted in another St. Louis County capital case "a fairly repetitive pattern" in which St. Louis County "has a substantial African-American community" yet there are "still all white juries and that's not mathematically probable."
