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Missouri to execute Marcellus Williams despite prosecutors’ objections and innocence claims (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Prosecutors raise concerns about lack of evidence as family of victim supports saving Williams from the death penalty

Missouri is slated to execute a man on death row on Tuesday, despite objections from prosecutors who have suggested he was wrongfully convicted.

Marcellus "Khaliifah" Williams, 55, is due to be killed by lethal injection even after the office of the St Louis county prosecuting attorney, which originally convicted him, sought to have his case overturned. Prosecutors have raised concerns about the lack of DNA evidence linking Williams to the 1998 killing of Lisha Gayle and have said that Williams did not get a fair trial.

Although the prosecuting office and victim's family backed an agreement to have Williams avoid the death penalty, Missouri's Republican attorney general, Andrew Bailey, has fought to allow the execution to proceed.

“The public doesn’t want this execution to move forward. The victim’s family doesn’t want this execution to move forward and the St Louis county prosecuting attorney’s office doesn’t want this execution to move forward,” said Jonathan Potts, one of Williams’s attorneys, in an interview Monday. “The attorney general’s office, who had nothing to do with this whatsoever, are the ones who are trying to lead him to the death chamber. It’s pretty startling and extraordinary.”

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[–] [email protected] -5 points 2 months ago (5 children)

I think it’s reasonable to say he might still be guilty. The victim’s personal items were found in his car, after all.

However, there’s doubt and execution leaves no room for doubt. The fact that they’re willing to murder a man whose guilt/innocence is in question is unconscionable.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 months ago (3 children)

There was no evidence he was at the crime scene: no fingerprints that match his, no DNA of his, no footprints that match his, no cloth/fiber samples from him, nothing. There actually was a ton of evidence left behind at the scene, but none of it connects to him.

There is no forensic evidence connecting him to the murder weapon, possibly because it was wildly mishandled by the police and the prosecutor.

There are no eye-witnesses saying that he was at the scene.

The items of hers in his car were not found by police officers and were not produced as evidence in the trial. The items were reportedly found by an ex-girlfriend who got a big reward for turning him in, and she only claimed to have seen the items, never actually showing the items to anyone.

The only other witness in the case was a cell-mate who claimed he confessed while in jail, and this jailhouse snitch ALSO claimed a big reward.

...

Yet with no tie to the crime scene, no tie to the victim, no tie to the weapon, no witnesses, no provable tie to stolen objects, and the word of a jailhouse snitch... you think it's reasonable to say he might still be guilty? Jesus fucking christ.

[–] derpgon 8 points 2 months ago

Especially when both snitches were promised a financial reward. And ONE person can push for a death penalty AGAINST everyone else. This is just madness.

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