Who Is Marcellus Williams? Inmate To Be Executed Despite New DNA Evidence

UPDATE: 2:50 p.m. EDT – Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens granted a stay of execution Tuesday for death row inmate Marcellus Williams. Williams was scheduled to be executed Tuesday evening for the 1998 death of Felicia Gayle. New technology not previously available during Williams trial, however, showed that DNA evidence on the murder weapon did not match that of Williams. Instead, it belonged to an unknown man.

"A sentence of death is the ultimate, permanent punishment," Greitens said in a statement. "To carry out the death penalty, the people of Missouri must have confidence in the judgement of guilt. In light of new information, I am appointing a Board of Inquiry in this case."

Original story:

A Missouri man was set to be executed Tuesday night despite DNA evidence that cast doubt on his guilt. Marcellus Williams, 48, was sentenced to death in 2001 for stabbing former St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter Felicia “Lisha” Gayle to death in 1998.

Recent DNA evidence, however, showed the DNA found on the murder weapon did not match that of Williams. Using technology not available during his initial trial, investigators find that the DNA on the knife belonged to an unknown male.

“[The DNA] isn’t enough to incriminate someone, but it is enough to exclude someone,” Greg Hampikan, the forensic DNA expert and biologist who analyzed it, told CNN Monday. “It’s like finding a Social Security card with some blurred numbers. There’s still enough there to at least exclude someone.”

On the eve of his execution, Wiliams’ lawyers filed a brief with the United States Supreme Court asking them to halt the execution and analyze the new evidence. Justice Neil Gorsuch, circuit justice for the 8^th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals which includes Missouri, had not ruled Monday evening.

“In this case, there is conclusive evidence that another man committed the crime,” said the brief, written by defense lawyer Kent Gipson.

Williams’ attorneys said there was no forensic evidence explicitly linking him to the crime and that the case was based on untrustworthy testimony from two convicted felons out for the $10,000 reward: namely, his ex-girlfriend and a former cellmate. The state, however, said it had enough non-DNA evidence to back up Williams’ conviction. Lawyers cited a laptop belonging to Gayle that Williams had sold in the wake of her death. A lack of DNA evidence, they said, did not attest to his innocence.

“Based on the other, non-DNA evidence in this case, our office is confident in Marcellus Williams’ guilt and plans to move forward,” said Loree Anne Paradise, deputy chief of staff for Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley.

The Missouri Supreme Court postponed his execution once before, in 2015, to allow time for DNA testing to be completing. The very same court, however, declined to stop the execution last week after the results of the testing were revealed.

Williams himself has asserted his innocence from day one.

“He’s at peace,” his son, Marcellus Williams II told CNN Monday. “I think tomorrow he’s going to be murdered. He [is] an innocent man, and that’s not right. Someone murdered that woman, but it wasn’t my father. I wish they would find the right suspect and charge them to the fullest extent of the law.”