Missouri executes Marcellus Williams despite prosecutors and the victim’s family asking that he be spared

Marcellus Williams was executed by lethal injection in Missouri on Tuesday evening after the US Supreme Court denied a stay of execution. The 55-year-old was put to death around 6 p.m. CT at the state prison in Bonne Terre, despite ongoing appeals questioning his conviction.

Williams’ legal team had presented new evidence, including concerns over jury bias and claims of contamination of the murder weapon before trial. The family of the victim, Felicia Gayle, had also requested clemency for Williams. However, both the Missouri Supreme Court and the state’s governor declined to halt the execution, and the US Supreme Court followed suit without explanation, a common practice in its emergency docket cases.

While most justices did not dissent, Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson expressed that they would have granted a stay. Williams had been convicted in 2001 for the 1998 murder of Felicia Gayle, a former newspaper reporter who was found stabbed to death in her home.

Missouri Governor Mike Parson, through the state’s Department of Corrections director Trevor Foley, stated, “We hope this brings closure to a case that has lingered for decades, re-traumatizing Ms. Gayle’s family. No juror or judge has ever found Williams’ claims of innocence credible. His conviction was upheld in over 15 judicial hearings, and the execution order has been carried out.”