Marcellus Williams executed in Missouri despite conviction doubts
Al Jazeera
The 55-year-old was convicted in 2003 over the killing of Lisha Gayle in what appeared to be a burglary gone wrong.
Marcellus Williams, who was convicted of murder 21 years ago, has been executed in the midwestern state of Missouri despite concerns raised over the integrity of the case.
The United States Supreme Court, the last body that could have overturned Williams’s death sentence, declined to intervene in the case on Tuesday.
The 55-year-old was executed by lethal injection shortly after 6pm (23:00 GMT) at a prison in Bonne Terre, according to The Innocence Project, whose lawyer worked with Williams. His death came a day after both Missouri Governor Mike Parson and the state’s highest court also rejected his last-ditch appeals to avoid execution.
Williams was found guilty in the 1998 killing of Lisha Gayle, a 42-year-old former newspaper reporter who was stabbed 43 times during what appeared to be a burglary gone wrong. He had maintained he was innocent.
Wesley Bell, whose office handled the original prosecution, had sought to block the execution due to concerns about the original trial.
