Free Republic

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...

The state of Missouri has executed Marcellus Williams despite concerns that the convicted murderer might have been innocent. Williams died by lethal injection shortly after 6 p.m. Tuesday at Missouri state prison in Bonne Terre. He was convicted and sentenced to death in 2001 for the 1998 murder of Felicia Gayle, a social worker and former St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter who was fatally stabbed during a daytime burglary. Republican Missouri Governor Mike Parson, Missouri's Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court all rejected last-minute attempts to halt the execution, ignoring clemency pleas from Williams' lawyers, prosecutors and members of the...