CLAYTON, Mo. (AP) — The Missouri Supreme Court docket has blocked an settlement that will have spared the lifetime of dying row inmate Marcellus Williams and as an alternative ordered a listening to to proceed on Williams’ innocence declare, with just a bit over a month to go earlier than his scheduled execution.
The ruling late Wednesday got here hours after St. Louis County Circuit Decide Bruce Hinton permitted a plan permitting Williams to enter a brand new no-contest plea to first-degree homicide within the 1998 dying of Lisha Gayle. Although Williams’ legal professionals mentioned he nonetheless maintained he was harmless, the plea acknowledged proof was enough for a conviction.
Williams would have been sentenced to life in jail with out parole on Thursday. As an alternative, the Sept. 24 execution date continues to be on, pending a listening to earlier than Hinton on Williams’ innocence declare.
That listening to had initially been scheduled to start Wednesday. St. Louis County Prosecuting Legal professional Wesley Bell had requested the decide to vacate Williams’ homicide conviction primarily based on DNA testing that discovered different DNA — however not that of Williams — on the knife used to kill Gayle.
However a brand new DNA check report launched this week confirmed that dealing with of the homicide weapon a long time in the past by a former assistant prosecutor and a former investigator contaminated the proof a lot that it was of no worth to Williams’ case. That discovering prompted prosecutors to achieve the settlement with Williams that Hilton signed off on.
Missouri Legal professional Basic Andrew Bailey instantly appealed, arguing {that a} circuit courtroom lacked authority to override a capital homicide sentence.
The Missouri Supreme Court docket agreed, ordering that Hilton “put aside mentioned consent order and judgment and file discover with this Court docket that you’ll take motion … together with holding the evidentiary listening to beforehand scheduled and anticipated.”
Bailey, in an announcement on Thursday, mentioned folks too typically “neglect about the entire proof that was used to convict the defendant — the proof the jury relied on — and the victims. It’s within the curiosity of each Missourian that the rule of regulation is fought for and upheld.”
Messages had been left with the St. Louis County prosecutor’s workplace and attorneys for Williams.
The courtroom Wednesday was filled with individuals who included a number of others who’ve been exonerated of crimes. For hours, legal professionals met behind closed doorways. Lastly, Matthew Jacober, a particular prosecutor for the St. Louis County Prosecuting Legal professional’s Workplace, introduced that the contaminated proof made it not possible to indicate that another person could have been the killer.
“The homicide weapon was dealt with with out correct procedures in place,” Jacober mentioned. The improper dealing with occurred a number of years earlier than Bell took workplace.
That discovering prompted the St. Louis County prosecutors to achieve an consent judgment permitting Williams to enter an Alford plea. He additionally agreed to not attraction.
“Marcellus Williams is an harmless man, and nothing about at present’s plea settlement modifications that reality,” Williams’ lawyer, Tricia Bushnell, mentioned in an announcement after the listening to. She famous that Gayle’s household supported setting apart the dying penalty, and the plea “brings a measure of finality” to the household.
Bailey mentioned in an announcement Wednesday that “the protection created a false narrative of innocence with a view to get a convicted assassin off of dying row and fulfill their political ends.” Bell defeated incumbent Cori Bush in Missouri’s 1st Congressional District Democratic main on Aug. 6 and might be closely favored within the November basic election.
Williams, who’s Black, was convicted and sentenced to dying by a jury consisting of 11 white folks and one Black particular person. He was hours away from execution in August 2017 when then-Gov. Eric Greitens, a Republican, granted a keep after DNA testing unavailable on the time of the killing confirmed that DNA on the knife matched another person, not Williams.
That proof prompted Bell to reexamine the case.
A 2021 Missouri regulation permits prosecuting attorneys to file a movement looking for to vacate a conviction they imagine was unjust. Three different males — Christopher Dunn final month, Kevin Strickland and Lamar Johnson — have been freed after a long time in jail after prosecutors efficiently challenged their convictions.
Prosecutors at Williams’ unique trial mentioned he broke into Gayle’s suburban St. Louis dwelling on Aug. 11, 1998, heard water working within the bathe, and located a big butcher knife. When Gayle got here downstairs, she was stabbed 43 occasions. Her purse and her husband’s laptop computer had been stolen. Gayle, who was white, was a social employee who beforehand labored as a reporter for the St. Louis Publish-Dispatch.
Authorities mentioned Williams stole a jacket to hide blood on his shirt. Williams’ girlfriend requested him why he would put on a jacket on a scorching day. The girlfriend mentioned she later noticed the laptop computer within the automotive and that Williams bought it a day or two later.
Prosecutors additionally cited testimony from Henry Cole, who shared a St. Louis cell with Williams in 1999 whereas Williams was jailed on unrelated expenses. Cole instructed prosecutors Williams confessed to the killing and provided particulars about it.
Williams’ attorneys responded that the girlfriend and Cole had been each convicted felons out for a $10,000 reward.