Court Reverses Deal To Nix Marcellus Williams Execution
August 23, 2024
Williams, who professes his innocence is set to be executed on September 24
On August 21, Marcellus Williams, who has been on death row since being convicted in the 1998 killing of Lisha Gayle, and set for execution on September 24, made a plea deal with prosecutors to be resentenced to life without parole, according to Fox 2 Now. But, on August 22, The Associated Press reported that the Missouri Supreme Court had nullified that agreement and ordered a hearing on Williams’ innocence claim.
Wow: The Missouri state Supreme Court has blocked the agreement sparing Marcellus Williams’ life. The Sept. 24 execution date is still onhttps://t.co/5iStaeZFGI https://t.co/tQe35MJcRy
— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) August 22, 2024
Williams, who has claimed he is innocent was scheduled resentencing August 22, when he would have entered a no-contest plea to first-degree murder in the 1998 death of Lisha Gayle based on a ruling August 21 by St. Louis County Circuit Judge Bruce Hinton. The judge approved the plan that still maintained Williams was innocent, but the plea acknowledged evidence was sufficient for a conviction.
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey appealed right away, stating that a circuit court did not have the authority to override a capital murder sentence. The Missouri Supreme Court agreed with Bailey, ordering the judge to “set aside said consent order and judgment and file notice with this Court that you will take action … including holding the evidentiary hearing previously scheduled and anticipated.”
Previously, St. Louis County prosecutor Wesley Bell asked the judge to vacate Williams’ murder conviction based on DNA testing after it was discovered that other DNA was found on the knife that was used to kill Gayle. A new DNA test report was released earlier this week stating that the handling of the murder weapon years ago by a former assistant prosecutor and a former investigator in the case contaminated the evidence so much that it was of no value to Williams’ case. Based on that report, prosecutors decided to reach an agreement with Williams.
At Williams’ original trial, prosecutors stated that he broke into Gayle’s home Aug. 11, 1998. Gayle was stabbed 43 times when she came downstairs. Her purse and her husband’s laptop were taken. Gayle, a white women, was a social worker who worked as a reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
The latest evidentiary hearing has been set for August 28.
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