XPost: alt.activism.death-penalty, stl.general, talk.politics.guns   
   XPost: sac.politics   
   From: kill-more-faster@dont-email.me   
      
   BONNE TERRE, Mo. —   
   The State of Missouri has executed Marcellus Williams.   
      
   The execution follows the U.S. Supreme Court's denial of a   
   request to halt Williams' execution.   
      
   The high court’s decision came a day after the Missouri Supreme   
   Court and Republican Gov. Mike Parson declined to intervene on   
   Williams' behalf.   
      
   Williams was convicted of first-degree murder in 2001 for the   
   1998 stabbing death of Felicia Gayle in St. Louis.   
      
   Gayle was a social worker and former reporter for the St. Louis   
   Post-Dispatch.   
      
   Physical evidence, including the victim's purse and a laptop,   
   was found in Williams' vehicle, and witnesses testified that he   
   confessed, the state argued.   
      
   Williams’ girlfriend asked him why he was wearing a jacket on a   
   hot day. She later saw the purse and laptop in his car and that   
   Williams sold the computer a day or two later.   
      
   St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell has sought to   
   set aside Williams’ sentence, citing questions about his guilt.   
      
   His office joined lawyers from the Midwest Innocence Project in   
   asking the U.S. Supreme Court to grant a stay.   
      
   “Even for those who disagree on the death penalty, when there is   
   a shadow of a doubt about any defendant’s guilt, the   
   irreversible punishment of execution should not be an option,”   
   Bell said in a statement.   
      
   Courts have consistently upheld the conviction over the past 15   
   years.   
      
   The Missouri Supreme Court, in its ruling this week, said that   
   DNA evidence failed to establish Williams' innocence, as it   
   matched that of investigators rather than an unknown assailant.   
      
   "Mr. Williams has exhausted due process and every judicial   
   avenue, including over 15 hearings attempting to argue his   
   innocence and overturn his conviction. No jury nor court,   
   including at the trial, appellate, and Supreme Court levels, has   
   ever found merit in Mr. Williams’ innocence claims," Parson said   
   on Monday. "At the end of the day, his guilty verdict and   
   sentence of capital punishment were upheld. Nothing from the   
   real facts of this case has led me to believe in Mr. Williams’   
   innocence; as such, Mr. Williams’ punishment will be carried out   
   as ordered by the Supreme Court.”   
      
   Williams was hours away from being executed in August 2017 when   
   then-Gov. Eric Greitens, a Republican, granted a stay and   
   appointed a panel of retired judges to examine the case. But   
   that panel never reached a conclusion.   
      
   Questions about DNA evidence also led 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.   
      
   Without DNA evidence pointing to any alternative suspect,   
   Midwest Innocence Project attorneys reached a compromise with   
   the prosecutor’s office: Williams would enter a new, no-contest   
   plea to first-degree murder in exchange for a new sentence of   
   life in prison without parole.   
      
   Judge Bruce Hilton signed off on the agreement, as did Gayle’s   
   family. But at the urging of Missouri Andrew Bailey, the state   
   Supreme Court blocked the agreement and ordered Hilton to   
   proceed with an evidentiary hearing, which took place Aug. 28.   
      
   Hilton ruled on Sept. 12 that the first-degree murder conviction   
   and death sentence would stand, noting that Williams’ arguments   
   all had been previously rejected. That decision was upheld   
   Monday by the state Supreme Court.   
      
   This is the third execution in Missouri in 2024.   
      
   Not enough.  Speed it up.  Televise it and make criminals watch.   
      
   https://www.kmbc.com/article/marcellus-williams-executed-in-   
   missouri/62340043   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)