Missouri executes a man for the 1998 killing of a woman despite her family’s calls to spare his life

themeatbridge@lemmy.world to News@lemmy.world – 453 points – Missouri executes a man for the 1998 killing of a woman despite her family’s calls to spare his life
apnews.com

“Tonight, Missouri lynched another innocent Black man,” NAACP President Derrick Johnson said in a statement.

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Everyone from the Attorney General down to the guy giving the lethal injection is a murderer.

This is also the case for all other executions – it's just state-sanctioned murder – but this case is so clearly awful and a racist lynching that hopefully it starts waking up the people who defend the death penalty.

Any human who would willingly deliver the fatal cocktail needs to be locked away far from humanity.

From what I hear, some people salivate over the opportunity

One of the problems these monsters have been having with carrying out executions is that they can't get pharma companies to sell them the drugs they use and they can't find actual healthcare professionals to perform the act. That's why there's been a few cases recently of having to cancel or postpone an execution because they couldn't get the damn IV line in.

Governor could have done something, right?

He did do something, which was to disband the committee investigating whether this man was wrongfully convicted or not and then later he denied a stay of execution.

Yep, the governor went above and beyond to ensure an innocent man was lynched by the state.

They need to stop saying “Missouri” and start calling them out by name. The governor and judge lynched this man.

3 more...

Williams’ attorneys responded that the girlfriend and Cole were both convicted of felonies and wanted a $10,000 reward. They said that fingerprints, a bloody shoeprint, hair and other evidence at the crime scene didn’t match Williams’.

A crime scene investigator had testified the killer wore gloves.

Questions about DNA evidence also led St. Louis Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell to request a hearing challenging Williams’ guilt. But days before the Aug. 21 hearing, new testing showed that DNA on the knife belonged to members of the prosecutor’s office who handled it without gloves after the original crime lab tests.

I thought I read somewhere else his gf rescinded her testimony too. Wouldn't be surprised if the prosecutor did the murder.

The prosecution also believes he didn’t have a fair trial

Which is astounding and shows how badly this trial was handled since most prosecutors will still claim someone is guilty even after irrefutable evidence shows they were wrongfully convicted and a judge orders them to be set free.

Fucking vile. Insane the bloodlust present in too many people in this fucking country.

Look, if you don't test the equipment on innocent people every now and then, how are you going to know if it works on the guilty people? Am I right?

We all hope we don't end up in the control group.

Have you tried being white? I hear that helps to avoid it.

And wealthy or well-connected. If you're poor, you don't necessarily have much of a chance.

The link is a long read, but interesting. The story of Cameron Todd Willingham, who was executed in Texas in 2004 for supposedly setting a fire that killed his three kids.

In December, 2004, questions about the scientific evidence in the Willingham case began to surface. Maurice Possley and Steve Mills, of the Chicago Tribune, had published an investigative series on flaws in forensic science; upon learning of Hurst’s report, Possley and Mills asked three fire experts, including John Lentini, to examine the original investigation. The experts concurred with Hurst’s report. Nearly two years later, the Innocence Project commissioned Lentini and three other top fire investigators to conduct an independent review of the arson evidence in the Willingham case. The panel concluded that “each and every one” of the indicators of arson had been “scientifically proven to be invalid.”

Like everything else in this backwards cursed fucking place, The Cruelty Is The Point.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Felicia_Gayle if you're interested.

TLDR there was a ton of evidence at the scene, including footprints, blood, and DNA on the murder weapon.

None of the physical evidence matched Williams, not the footprints, not the blood, not the DNA on the murder weapon, but because it had not been handled properly, the exonerating evidence was ruled inadmissible.

Witnesses also recanted their testimony that Williams had confessed to them, and the prosecution admitted to striking jurors because they were black. There was zero physical evidence linking Williams to the scene, and zero credible witnesses claiming to have even second-hand knowledge of the crime.

The victim's family and the prosecution had both called for a stay of execution.

Leave it to the south (Missouri is south-adjacent) to inflict the greatest cruelty. Doesn’t matter if you did it. You need to die.

Well, with the way prisons are managed, this might be better then dying from heatstroke in a box in the yard. And that's a pretty sad state to be in.

How much of this was the state just wishing they didn't have to pay for his life imprisonment?

Zero percent. It spent more money executing him than it would have keeping him in prison.

Quota is quota. American law doesn’t exist to protect, it exists to punish.

It doesn’t rehabilitate, either. Cheaper and more profitable to warehouse people than to offer psychiatric and educational care. Yes, before some pedants tell me that prisons do offer some of these things, I know they do. But they are not the default, and they are not always easily accessed.

wtf is that headline?

Straight from AP.

Yes, I'm criticizing the AP for not mentioning the man's innocence or lack of evidence and non-recanted witness statements.

Agreed, the headline makes it sound like the family was being merciful despite his conviction. Nope, Missouri just lynched a man.

before anyone says ACHSKULLY The prESidEnT doEsn't HAve Any auThOritY to StoP tHIS, yes they do. they're a politician. negotiate. presidents break the law all the time.

I'm angry about this too, but what exactly are you thinking Biden could havw done? Invade Missouri? Place the governor and state Supreme court under arrest? I might enjoy that, but that's not how America works.

Yes you're right. The future needs great consideration for any current action. Making this call to pardon him would set the pace for an overuse of the power. Corrupt president's would be issuing pardons left and right.

I sympathize and wish for an alternate outcome. If the president did pardon, I wouldn't object. I just understand that all actions have consequences.