“In the face of apex arrogance…
and ethnic cleansing by any definition…
still your laughter can be heard
and somehow you are able to smile
O resilient Children of Palestine!” wrote Marcellus “Khaliifah” Williams, a 55-year old Black man who enjoyed writing poems from the age of 14.
Williams was executed today on the order of the Supreme Court of Missouri by injecting a 5-gram dose of pentobarbital into his body. He was executed for a crime that DNA evidence showed he did not commit.
Williams was convicted in 2001 for the murder of a 42-year old White woman named Lisha Gayle, a former police reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, a regional newspaper in Missouri. According to police, Gayle was killed after being stabbed 43 times using a knife from her own kitchen during a burglary attempt at her home in the St. Louis suburban on August 11, 1998.
Gayle’s slain body was first discovered by her husband Daniel Picus later that night. Gayle’s purse and Picus’s laptop were found missing form the house, which led the police to suspect burglary. Police got considerable forensic evidence from the crime scene including bloody shoeprints, fingerprints, a knife sheath and the suspect’s hair collected from Gayle’s shirt, hands and the floor.
But none of these matched with the DNA of Williams, who was arrested more than a month into the investigation, on the basis of a testimony from a jailhouse witness, who told police that Williams had confessed that he killed Gayle while they spent time incarcerated together.
‘Its a murder’
The execution of Williams has sparked widespread outrage and protests from advocacy groups, government officials, religious leaders and millions of citizens with some dubbing it as “modern day lynching” of a Black man and a “murder.”
According to Bushnell, Williams’ lead defense attorney, more than one million citizens had requested Governor Parson to commute Williams’ death sentence. Parson had dissolved a Board of Inquiry that was looking into the DNA test results that was in favour of Williams which led to the Supreme Court ordering his execution which was put on hold twice before.
“That is not justice…And we must all question any system that would allow this to occur,” USA TODAY quoted Bushnell as saying.
“We will remember him for his deeply evocative poetry and his love for and service to his family and his community… While he yearned to return home, he is a thoughtful man who has worked hard to move beyond the anger, frustration, and fear of wrongful execution, channeling his energy into his faith and finding meaning and connection through Islam. The world will be a worse place without him,” she said.
Missouri Congresswoman Cori Bush accused the Governor of ignoring the pleas and ending Williams’ life.
“He demonstrated how the death penalty is wielded without regard for innocence, compassion, equity, or humanity,” Bush told USA TODAY.
“He showed us how the standard of ‘beyond a reasonable doubt’ can be applied selectively, depending on who stands accused and who stands in power,” she said.
“Tonight, Missouri lynched another innocent Black man… Governor Parson had the responsibility to save this innocent life, and he didn’t. The NAACP was founded in 1909 in response to the barbaric lynching of Black people in America − we were founded exactly because of people like Governor Parson who perpetuate violence against innocent Black people. We will hold Governor Parson accountable. When DNA evidence proves innocence, capital punishment is not justice − it is murder,” ‘National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’ (NAACP) president Derrick Johnson told media.
“The governor of Missouri, Mike Parson just committed a modern-day lynching by murdering Marcellus Williams,” Black Lives Matter posted on X.