Missouri death row inmate claims racial bias, seeks to stop execution

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St. Louis, Mo., Sep 23, 2024 / 16:45 pm (CNA).

A Missouri death row inmate sentenced to death for a 1998 murder will have his case reviewed by the state Supreme Court ahead of his scheduled execution on Tuesday. 

Attorneys for Marcellus “Khaliifah” Williams argued before the court Monday that Williams did not receive a fair criminal trial in part because of the racial makeup of the jury and the fact that the trial prosecutor struck at least one juror in part because of his race, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. 

Felicia “Lisha” Gayle, a reporter for the Post-Dispatch, was found brutally stabbed dozens of times in her home in the St. Louis suburb of University City in 1998. Circumstantial evidence, including the discovery of several of Gayle’s personal belongings in Williams’ car, tied him to the break-in and murder. Williams also allegedly confessed to the murder to his girlfriend and a fellow inmate. 

Williams, who was already serving jail time for two unrelated robberies, was charged with Gayle’s murder in 1999 and convicted in 2001. St. Louis County Circuit Court Judge Bruce Hilton upheld Williams’ conviction earlier this month. 

Though Williams has maintained his innocence throughout the process, his filing with the Missouri Supreme Court emphasized the alleged constitutional errors in his initial trial, including alleged racial bias. Williams was convicted by a jury with 11 white people on it and only one fellow Black person, which his attorneys argued reflected the fact that the prosecutor struck at least one potential Black juror because he and Williams “looked like brothers.”

Williams’ attorneys had recently pushed for Williams’ release after new DNA testing revealed at least two other people’s DNA on the knife used in the murder, though it later came to light that the DNA belonged to law enforcement professionals who had handled the knife without gloves. 

Williams, who is Muslim, is scheduled to die by lethal injection on Sept. 24. Missouri is among the most prolific of all U.S. states when it comes to the death penalty; it was one of only five states to carry out executions in 2023, carrying out four that year. In April, Republican Gov. Mike Parson denied a death row inmate’s clemency request despite protests from Catholics and others, clearing the way for the state’s first execution of 2024. 

The Catechism of the Catholic Church, reflecting an update promulgated by Pope Francis in 2018, describes the death penalty as “inadmissible” and an “attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person” (CCC, No. 2267). The change reflects a development of Catholic doctrine in recent years. St. John Paul II, calling the death penalty “cruel and unnecessary,” encouraged Christians to be “unconditionally pro-life” and said that “the dignity of human life must never be taken away, even in the case of someone who has done great evil.”

The Missouri Catholic Conference, which advocates for public policy on behalf of the state’s bishops, encouraged Catholics to contact Parson to express their opposition to Williams’ execution. (Parson has never granted clemency to a death row inmate during his governorship.)

“The Catholic Church is strongly opposed to the death penalty because it disregards the sanctity and dignity of human life,” the conference noted. 

In addition, the Catholic Mobilizing Network, a national advocacy group that demonstrates against the death penalty, urged Catholics to oppose Williams’ execution, calling him “a loving father, mentor, and respected leader within the incarcerated community” as well as “an accomplished poet who has dedicated much of his time in prison to studying Islam and writing poetry.”