ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. — A change to Missouri's law in 2021 is setting the stage for a historic legal battle over the upcoming execution of a man on death row for a crime many say he didn't commit.
Marcellus Williams has spent 24 years behind bars after he was convicted in the 1998 stabbing death of Lisha Gayle, a social worker and one-time St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter. The next step in Williams' upcoming execution was taken Tuesday when the Missouri Supreme Court announced the execution date for Sept. 24.
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In the years following Williams' conviction, numerous groups have pushed back against the execution decision citing that DNA evidence found on the knife that killed Gayle didn't match Williams and, instead, belonged to an unknown person, according to attorneys with the Midwest Innocence Project.
One of the groups pushing for Williams' release is the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney's Office, the same office that originally convicted Williams of the crime. Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell filed a legal motion in January to halt Williams' execution based on the DNA evidence.
PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Wesley Bell seeks to overturn conviction of Marcellus Williams, an inmate who has spent decades on death row
Bell's move to vacate the conviction is possible thanks to a change made to Missouri's law in 2021, which allows prosecutor offices to go back and challenge prosecutions their office had previously brought, a power that was previously reserved for the Missouri Attorney General's Office. The law change has previously led to the release of two men from prison: Kevin Strickland in 2021 and Lamar Johnson in 2022.
However, Tuesday was the first time in state history that the Missouri Supreme Court set an execution date for an inmate who has an active motion to vacate filed under this new statute. The execution date doesn't mean the court isn't actively considering Bell's motion. Rather, it sets a deadline for the motion to be decided.
"The Missouri Supreme Court has set an execution date for Marcellus Williams when our office has a pending motion before a lower court to vacate the conviction that led to Williams’ death sentence," a spokesperson from the county prosecuting attorney's office told 5 On Your Side. "We will proceed with the courts as we see proper and announce any actions we take with the courts after we have taken them. Until then, we will have no further comment."
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