Missouri to execute Marcellus Williams despite prosecutors’ objections and innocence claims

MicroWave@lemmy.world to News@lemmy.world – 603 points – Missouri to execute Marcellus Williams despite prosecutors’ objections and innocence claims
theguardian.com

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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Missouri’s Republican attorney general, Andrew Bailey, has fought to allow the execution to proceed.

"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.”

I recognize that this is a horrible tragedy for this man and his family, and I hope there is somehow a last-second reprieve, but let this be yet another reminder - R is the party for those with no empathy, no compassion, no concern for anyone not like them. (and that includes the ones jumping from Trump's sinking ship to cozy up to Harris.) If a Republican is running for any position in your town, any at all, vote for someone else.

It's almost comical how easily you can predict the party affiliations in these stories.

And yet people here still try to push a "bOtH SiDeS" narrative...

Rule 465: Anyone pushing both sides is actually just pushing one side with plausible deniability.

But I've been told in no uncertain terms that .ml and hexbear were the instances full of people arguing in bad faith...

Well, I mean, they don't want to appear lenient on the wrongfully convicted.

You could have just stopped at lenient. They're Republicans, they have no morals or empathy.

Hey now, some of them are just incredibly, monumentally stupid. Half of the people are below average you know.

Yeah, if they let this guy go, other innocent people might start getting ideas.

Leela: We've petitioned the governor. But he doesn't want to appear soft on people who've been falsely imprisoned.

If they know he's innocent and they kill him anyways, that sounds like murder.

It is murder either way.

I checked and murder is wrong but it’s very wrong so you can murder someone who committed murder because then murder isn’t wrong because you’re wronging in the right way against a wronger

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Isn't this the same attorney general that refused to release prisoners that had been exonerated?

Yes, and wasted taxpayer dollars trying to get involved in the Trump documents case for some reason and trying to delay sentencing in the hush money case.

So at what point can this just be called what it is? Murder. A republican is trying to take advantage of his position to murder a black man.

When prosecutors make the argument... JFC

Our legal system is an abortion

This murder will be an actual example of a post-term abortion that the right has been pretending to be scared of, ironically enough

I'm pretty sure Republicans are quite content with the current legal system, but they hate abortions, so it's more like.....a burning homeless shelter? A Puppy- stomping-Yard? An all-you-can-touch daycare?.............uhm.......... What do republicans like else?

We don't have a legal system. That assumes that figuring out if the law was broken is the primary goal. We have a punishment system. The primary goal is to hand out the harshest punishment that they can get away with, provided you don't have the financial means to be fast tracked over to the slap on the wrist system set aside for rich folks.

The system is working as intended.

What is the even the point of the justice system then???

Well, it ain't a justice system, that's painfully obvious to the Black community.

Andrew Bailey is the absolute worst and wasn't even elected. He was appointed by the governor after his predecessor was elected to the Senate. Somehow it looks like he is going to win in November which is so depressing.

"Fuck the facts, kill the man and we'll talk later"

The attorney general argued in court that the prosecutor at the time denied racial motivations for removing Black jurors and asserted there was nothing improper about touching the murder weapon without gloves at the time.

The attorney general is an idiot and lacking in basic evidence collection knowledge.

Don't give them the benefit of the doubt.

Thanks, I prefer Australia where only the plants and animals try to kill you.

I've never seen Australian exceptionalism. But, I'm not surprised.

Man do the Republicans / GOP / Conservatives / Religions right L O V E violence. They absolutely love it.

You would think they would never execute someone without conclusive undeniable evidence. Yet here we are.

It's too late, they killed him despite the prosecutors and victims family and DNA evidence all pointing towards his innocence. I have seen stories about him everywhere for the last week but apparently Missouri isn't bothered by negative press, they just love killing black people. An aptly named state; I hope its residents riot but I've been to St. Louis and know better than that. I'm afraid this is the new status quo.

"Tough on crime, damn the torpedoes, full speed!"

My guess: elections are almost here, so that need to be "tough on crime." This is just despicable

Executing INNOCENT People is called being PRO LIFE Libtards!

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.

The article says they were claimed to be found in his car by a then-girlfriend who took $10,000 reward money to testify, not that they were found by law enforcement and collected as evidence and checked against a list of things that were known to have been stolen. It's plausible that nothing was found and the whole story was made up for cash, or that it was just some stuff he'd bought at a yard sale that was misidentified, or something he'd stolen from somewhere else. Someone saying someone had junk in their car isn't strong evidence of anything.

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.

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.

He admitted to selling the laptop but claims the girlfriend gave it to him to sell, but he certainly had possession of it.

I still believe the death sentence should be removed from the table if there’s even a shred of doubt which there is plenty of in this case.

I worked at a gas station for years in a poor town and I bought and sold several used computers that sometimes ended up being stolen. I always did my best to make sure that didn’t happen. I’d check the personal info on the drives before I’d clear them and try to get up with the people who originally owned them. I probably returned at least 15 of them over the years.

It’s crazy to think that I could have ended up being charged with murder if I had been pulled over with some shit in my car.

One time I got a sob story, “I lost my job bro. You can get my Xbox 360, my tv, my laptop, and all these games right now for 100 bucks.” I lost that 100 bucks because I contacted the Xbox account and found that the stuff had all been stolen and I returned it. Imagine if someone had killed someone to get that stuff and I got pulled over with it.

They gave me a cheap guitar for returning it. They didn’t have to do that and I’ve always appreciated it. It’s risky being in a poor town and buying things for resell.

This morning I was driving behind a blue Honda fiach. I looked at the driver at the stop before the usual speed trap by the Lynnwood WA highschool. And just like clock work bam! The guy gets the lights right in front of me. I'm just wondering what shit story I'm going to be ending with when I get stopped. I can I'm just not going to drive thru that street. It's the most direct way to the freeway but obviously business wants to route us thru areas where there are stores. So probably a felony.