A Missouri inmate is set to die today – even after a prosecutor fought to have his conviction repealed
The family of the woman he was convicted of killing has agreed to a life sentence for the inmate instead of the death penalty.
But Marcellus Williams is scheduled to die tonight after Missouri’s supreme court and governor refused to grant a stay of execution following a flurry of appeal efforts based on what his attorneys describe as new evidence, bias in jury selection and mishandling of the murder weapon prior to trial.
Williams was convicted in 2001 of killing Felicia Gayle, a former newspaper reporter found stabbed to death in her home in 1998.
The 55-year-old is set to be executed by lethal injection at 6 p.m. CT at the state prison in Bonne Terre unless the US Supreme Court intervenes.
Recently, the top prosecutor in St. Louis County joined Williams’ attorneys in asking for the conviction to be overturned after new testimony from the 2001 trial prosecutor and recent DNA testing showing evidence contamination.
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