Hearing to declare innocence for Missouri man sentenced to death set

JIM SALTER and Associated Press

6 mins ago

FILE – This Missouri Department of Corrections booking photo shows Marcellus Williams. A Missouri judge on Tuesday, July 2, 2024, set a date for an Aug. 21 hearing to determine whether Williams is innocent of the murder that landed him on death row – a hearing that comes just over a month before Williams is scheduled to die. (Missouri Department of Corrections via AP, File)

ST. LOUIS (AP) – A Missouri judge on Tuesday set Aug. 21 as the date for a hearing to determine whether Marcellus Williams is innocent of the murder for which he was placed on death row. The hearing comes less than a month before Williams’ death date.

Williams, 55, was convicted of the premeditated murder of Lisha Gayle, whom he stabbed to death during a robbery of her suburban St. Louis home in 1998. In August 2017, his execution was imminent when he was granted a stay after tests that were not available at the time of the murder showed that DNA on the knife matched that of another person, not Williams.

Questions about DNA evidence prompted St. Louis County District Attorney Wesley Bell to file a motion in January to overturn the murder conviction. The new hearing date is in response to Bell’s motion. Meanwhile, Williams’ execution is scheduled for Sept. 24 at the state prison in Bonne Terre, Missouri.

A 2021 Missouri law allows prosecutors to file a motion to overturn a conviction if they believe an inmate may be innocent or was wrongfully convicted for other reasons.

Typically, the judge takes several weeks after the hearing concludes to weigh the evidence. In this case, it’s not certain whether St. Louis County District Judge Bruce Hilton will rule on the innocence claim before the execution date — raising the possibility that Missouri could execute a man a judge later declares innocent.

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s office opposes the attempt to overturn the murder conviction. Bailey’s office did not immediately respond to an email asking whether Bailey would seek to stay the execution until a decision is made on the innocence claim.

Tricia Rojo Bushnell, an attorney with the Midwest Innocence Project, urged the state to stay the execution.

“The Attorney General should not try to block the court’s review, and the Missouri Supreme Court should stay Mr. Williams’ execution,” Bushnell said in an email.

The Missouri Supreme Court set June 4 as the execution date, just hours after ruling that Republican Gov. Mike Parson was right to disband an investigative committee convened by Parson’s predecessor six years earlier.

Governor Eric Greitens, also a Republican, stopped the execution in 2017 just hours before it was due to take place, citing DNA evidence. The investigative committee he appointed consisted of five retired judges.

The board has not made a decision, reached a conclusion, or issued a report. Parson dissolved the board in June 2023, saying it was time to “look forward.”

Since the law’s passage in 2021, the murder convictions of two men who each spent decades in prison have been overturned, and a third case remains pending several weeks after a hearing.

In 2021, Kevin Strickland was released after more than 40 years in prison for three murders in Kansas City after a judge ruled he was wrongfully convicted in 1979. In 2023, a judge in St. Louis overturned the conviction of Lamar Johnson, who served nearly 28 years for a murder he said he never committed.

A judge in St. Louis is still considering the fate of Christopher Dunn after a hearing in May. Dunn served 33 years in prison for shooting a 15-year-old boy in 1990.

Williams is the first death row inmate to have his innocence heard before a Missouri judge – an “unprecedented situation,” Bell said in a statement. But another death row inmate was released two decades ago.

Joseph Amrine spent 17 years on death row before being released in 2003 after the Missouri Supreme Court ruled that there was no credible evidence linking him to the killing of another inmate. Key testimony against Amrine came from three former inmates, all of whom later recanted their statements. Prosecutors subsequently decided not to retry him.

Prosecutors said at the time of the crime that on August 11, 1998, Williams broke a window to get into Gayle’s house, heard water running in the shower and found a large butcher knife. When Gayle came down the stairs, she was stabbed 43 times. Her purse and her husband’s laptop were stolen. Gayle was a social worker and had previously worked as a reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Authorities said Williams stole a jacket to hide blood on his shirt. Williams’ girlfriend asked him why he would wear a jacket on a hot day. The girlfriend said she later saw the laptop in the car and Williams sold it a day or two later.

Prosecutors also relied on the testimony of Henry Cole, who was incarcerated with Williams in a St. Louis cell in 1999 while Williams was incarcerated on other charges. Cole told prosecutors that Williams confessed to the murder and provided details about it.

Williams’ lawyers responded that the girlfriend and Cole were convicted felons with a $10,000 reward.

——

Heather Hollingsworth in Mission, Kansas, contributed to this report.