Posted on 09/25/2024 9:27:13 AM PDT by Morgana
The execution of a death row inmate whose murder conviction has been doubted by the prosecutors that convicted him has sparked a wave of outrage across the US.
Missouri Governor Mike Parson has been branded 'shameful' and 'racist' and the state and federal justice systems accused of being 'flawed' after Marcellus Williams was put to death by lethal injection on Tuesday.
Williams, 55, was sentenced to death over the 1998 killing of Lisha Gayle, who was stabbed repeatedly during a burglary of her suburban St. Louis home.
The St. Louis County prosecutor's office - which originally secured his conviction in 2001 - had filed a motion to vacate the conviction after expressing concerns about the lack of DNA evidence linking Williams to the killing of Gayle. They also argued that Williams, who has insisted he is innocent, did not receive a fair trial.
But Williams' execution moved forward Tuesday after Parson and the state Supreme Court, acting on an appeal from Missouri Attorney General's office, rejected his appeals in quick succession the day before. The US Supreme Court also rejected a last-ditch request to stay his execution.
Gayle's family had also agreed to a deal that would see Williams sentenced to life in prison instead of being executed.
Civil rights campaigners and politicians alike have launched attacks on Parson and the Missouri Supreme Court over Williams' death, with the NAACP even calling the injustice a modern-day 'lynching'.
British billionaire Richard Branson, who bought a full-page advert in the Kansas City Star newspaper decrying a 'devastating miscarriage of justice,' mourned Williams's execution on social media.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
I want solid evidence before we send someone to death. I don't think it was proven back then.
RIP MR Williams but remember God know your sins like he knows all of ours.
On my first glance read of the headline I thought it said “Marcellus Wallace”.
Another misleading headline. It wasn't the "prosecutors" but the prosecutor's office that wanted the conviction overturned.
We have seen, since 2001 how the prosecutor's office in many localities, has been overtaken by liberal factions that almost literally decriminalize crime.
Now they are saying he is “not guilty” but only want his sentence reduced to life in prison.
What’s wrong with that picture?
I’ma call a coupla hard, pipe-hittin’ ni@@as, who’ll go to work on the homes here with a pair of pliers and a blow torch. You hear me talkin’, hillbilly boy? I ain’t through with you by a damn sight. I’ma get medieval on your ass.
2. I considered the defendant's case to be much stronger until I saw that his apologists in the article include a moron like Cori Bush and a Branch Covidian foreigner like Richard Branson.
Zed. like the Gimp, soon to be dead!
I have not read all the court papers and I’d like to know more on this. I’m just telling you that since DNA started being used in trials it has made it harder to prove a person guilty AND it has proven people innocent!
There was a case in my own state that I will never forget. At the Huntington Mall in Barboursville, WV a woman was raped. They caught a man who said he did not do it. This was back in the 1980’s long before DNA. All during the trial and after he as found guilty he was screaming he did not do it. Well fast forward years later when DNA got on the scene this man demanded it and guess what? HE WAS INNOCENT. The DNA in that woman and his was not a match. They let him go and he files a lawsuit but what he won was not enough after being raped himself in prison and being wrongly accused.
Oh and they caught the man who did rape her using the DNA. He as already in prison for you guessed it.
But, I think there are different ideas being presented that I believe are not being thoroughly examined. The evidence shows that Williams had both a purse belonging to the victim, and a laptop belonging to the victim's husband in his car. He sold that laptop several days after the murder. Those facts have not been explained in a way that indicates innocence. The testimony from his girlfriend indicated that he had blood on his shirt when she saw him soon after the murder had been committed. As for the jailhouse snitch, I don't think that's relevant. And as far as the bias at the trial, I think that's simply a common avenue to try to get a new trial.
This case has been looked at by many different people, and they have all come to the same conclusion-Williams is guilty of this murder.
>> We have seen, since 2001 how the prosecutor’s office in many localities, has been overtaken by liberal factions that almost literally decriminalize crime.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ THAT ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
normally I am not on the same side as NAACP, but there are enough history of death penalty errors and men wrongfully executed that I would like to see an end to the death penalty altogether.
The only DNA they found was from someone in the prosecutor’s office who handled the knife without gloves.
“The only DNA they found was from someone in the prosecutor’s office who handled the knife without gloves.”
If that is true...
They just f+++ up that whole case
Someone needs their ass handed to them
This man did not get a fair trial.
They claim it is racist every time a black gets arrested. In ATL, they stopped showing mug shots on the nightly news because they were 95% black, and they didn’t like the “image”. Now you look for code words, like “teens” or “youths”, or “a (state) man”. Still ~95%
One thing I know is during a stabbing there will be DNA from the person who did the stabbing everywhere
Not at all necessarily.
Thanks for being duped. Let’s look at some FACTS that your bleeding heart ignores:
- According to her testimony, Marcellus Williams confessed the murder to his girlfriend soon after committing his horrific crime once his girlfriend found Ms. Gayle’s purse in Williams’ car, but he also threatened to kill her and her family if she told anyone, readily explaining why his girlfriend did not approach law enforcement until Williams was in custody.
- The girlfriend never requested the reward for information about Ms. Gayle’s murder, despite claims that she was only interested in money.
- Gayle’s personal items were found in the trunk of Williams’ car.
- Williams sold Ms. Gayle’s husband’s laptop to another individual who later identified Williams as the seller.
Tell me again why you think this sadistic and evil murderer should have been spared.
Some people(YOU) are TOO gullible.
That’s kinds of an issue I have with these last ditch scrambles.
So, they’re saying their morally OK with letting a possibly innocent man spend an undeterminable amount of time in prison, likely dying there in some miserable circumstance...we just don’t want to feel bad if we find out after an execution.
This way, we can feel good if we find out we stole 30 odd years of someone’s life, and then dump them back on the street with a few bucks for their inconvenience.
Hopefully we can get some better processes in place to minimize this clusterf*ck in the future - because the juries aren’t getting any smarter.
So the law and order prosecutors in the office in 2001, have retired and are now replaced by squishy DEI pro criminal prosecutors - who want to let the criminal go. NOPE
+1
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.