Today, the prosecutor from St. Louis will advocate for a Missouri inmate on death row, advocating for their alleged innocence.
Marcellus Williams, aged 55, is scheduled for capital punishment on September 24, allegedly responsible for the fatal stabbing of Felicia Gayle, a former St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter. Despite his continuous proclamations of innocence, Williams' legal team and St. Louis Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell assert that DNA testing conducted in 2016 excludes Williams as the murderer. They strengthen this argument due to the lack of any evidence linking him to other crime scene remnants.
Tricia Rojo Bushnell, Williams' attorney and the Midwest Innocence Project's executive director, communicated to CNN, stating that "nothing ties Marcellus to the crime scene." Neither eyewitnesses nor physical evidence placed him at the scene. "It wasn't him wielding the knife," she added, emphasizing the unreliable initial evidence and now the DNA evidence, which further solidifies his innocence.
With his impending execution looming, William's claim of being falsely convicted presents a fundamental concern with capital punishment – the possibility of an innocent individual being executed. Since 1973, at least 200 individuals on death row have been subsequently exonerated, four in Missouri, as per the Death Penalty Information Center.
Bell, who won the Democratic primary against US Rep. Cori Bush this month, submitted a motion to vacate Williams' conviction and death sentence in January, prompted by an independent review by the Conviction and Incident Review Unit within the prosecutor's office, Rojo Bushnell detailed. Although the St. Louis Prosecutor's Office oversaw the 2001 trial against Williams, Bell assumed office in 2018.
The Missouri Attorney General's Office opposed this motion and attempted to halt the St. Louis County Circuit Court hearing and assessment of the evidence during the preceding month, arguing the state Supreme Court had rejected the assertions Bell's office intends to make. However, this endeavor was unsuccessful, as the Missouri Supreme Court denied Bailey's request.
In their arguments against the prosecutor's motion, Bailey's office claimed only the state Supreme Court has the power to halt Williams' execution. However, the prosecutor's motion asserted that the DNA evidence now under scrutiny has never been examined by a court.
"This unassessed evidence, coupled with the lack of other reliable evidence supporting guilt and additional considerations of ineffective counsel and racial discrimination in jury selection, casts significant doubt on Mr. Williams’s conviction and sentence."
Williams was initially due for execution in 2017, but former Gov. Eric Greitens, a Republican, halted the execution and formed a five-person panel to evaluate the new evidence in the case, including the DNA. Greitens subsequently resigned and last year, Republican Gov. Mike Parson dissolved the board and lifted the stay, citing that the delay had delayed justice and left the Gayle family "in limbo." Parson's statement followed the filing of a motion with the state Supreme Court.
A spokesperson from the St. Louis Prosecuting Attorney's Office referred CNN to the motion to vacate Williams' conviction. The Missouri Attorney General's Office has not commented on the matter, and requests for comment have been directed towards Daniel Picus, Gayle's widower.
In a 2017 editorial for the Post-Dispatch, Laura Friedman, Gayle's widow, highlighted that her family had been victimized not only by Gayle's murder but also the agonizingly slow justice system, which had left them "in limbo" for almost two decades. The media frenzy surrounding the case was also an unwelcome addition, she added.
"If the convicted killer is innocent, as some assert, that implies a murderer is still at large – a scenario far too harrowing to contemplate and almost certainly beyond reach for justice."
The murder of Felicia Gayle
Gayle, 42, was found dead in her St. Louis suburb University City home on August 11, 1998, suffering from 43 stab wounds inflicted by a kitchen knife, according to the prosecutor's motion and other court documents. She was a compassionate woman known for her kindness and generosity, highlighted by the Post-Dispatch Editorial Board in 2017, who'd left the paper six years prior to her death to devote her time to volunteer work.
Upon investigating the scene, investigators discovered hair, footprints, and fingerprints belonging to neither Gayle nor her spouse. Missing from the residence were Picus' laptop and Gayle's purse containing various personal items.
However, the investigation encountered multiple obstacles, as per the motion. In an attempt to solicit information, Gayle's family offered a $10,000 reward, which was heavily promoted through television and newspaper coverage of the case.
The initial tip-off came in June 1999, asserted the report: Henry Cole contacted law enforcement, revealing he had served time in prison alongside Williams, who was incarcerated for a robbery with a firearm the year prior. Cole, who admitted to coming forward for the reward and battled drug addiction and mental health issues, claimed Williams confessed to Gayle's murder, providing details of the crime he claimed Williams shared.
However, Cole's statements were inconsistent and sometimes conflicted with evidence, as the prosecutor's office stated in their report. Regardless, as investigators attempted to verify his account, they reached out to Williams' former partner, Laura Asaro, whom Cole had indicated had witnessed the crime on that day.
Initially, Asaro denied having any information about the crime, as per the prosecutor's report. But after meeting with police on multiple occasions – and being promised that the charges she was facing would be dropped and that she would be eligible for the reward – Asaro eventually cooperated, disclosing that she had indeed seen Williams on the day of the murder, according to the report.
Williams had blood on his shirt, scratches on his neck, and a computer in his vehicle, Asaro told police, the report claimed. Williams later confessed to Gayle's murder, Asaro informed investigators, inspiring the report to note inconsistencies between Asaro's statements and Cole's, as well as contradictions with established evidence in the case.
The following day, police seized Williams' vehicle and discovered a ruler from the Post-Dispatch within, although the report mentioned it had not been among Gayle's missing belongings. Police did locate Picus' missing laptop at the residence of an individual named Glenn Roberts, who stated he had obtained it from Williams.
DNA evidence had not previously been reviewed by a court
The prosecutor's report argued that Williams' conviction largely relied on Asaro's and Cole's testimonies, as no evidence from the scene could be linked to Williams: There were no matching footprints, hair, or fingerprints, the report said.
Though Picus' laptop was found, the prosecutor's office claimed Roberts informed investigators that Williams had gotten it from Asaro – an assertion Roberts reiterated in an affidavit signed in 2020. This claim, however, never reached the jury during the trial, as per the report, illustrating that "Laura Asaro, not Marcellus Williams, had the most direct connection to the crime."
The DNA evidence now central to Williams' claim of innocence had not been presented at his trial. The state Supreme Court ordered the evidence to be tested in 2015, but two years later – after testing had been completed – it declined to halt the inmate's execution without a hearing.
The prosecutor's report cited three DNA experts who concluded that the results excluded Williams as the originator of male DNA found on the knife. "When you're stabbing, DNA transfers due to restriction and force. If you're stabbing anyone, there's a good chance of transferring your DNA due to that force," one of those experts had previously explained to CNN.
In light of these developments, the US Representative Cori Bush, who lost the Democratic primary to Wesley Bell, has expressed concern about the potential falsely convicting and executing innocent individuals, stating, "We cannot afford to execute an innocent man." Furthermore, the Missouri Attorney General's Office, in their arguments against the prosecutor's motion, acknowledged that the DNA evidence has not been examined by a court yet, asserting, "This unassessed evidence is a crucial component in the case."
