A St. Louis County circuit judge has denied a motion to vacate the murder conviction and scheduled execution of Marcellus Williams, a man on death row for the 1998 killing of Lisha Gayle. Despite agreeing to an Alford plea on August 21, which allowed him to maintain his innocence while being convicted, Williams is still set to be executed on September 24, unless further interventions are made. According to FOX2now, an court order stated, "There is no basis for a court to find that Williams is innocent, no court has made such a finding."
Judge Bruce Hilton, who had previously signed off on the plea agreement that would have spared Williams from death, ruled on Thursday that because Williams had never been found innocent by a court, his sentence could not be vacated. As per KSDK reports, that the Missouri Attorney General's Office has stood against the effort to spare Williams' life, even though other evidence, including DNA testing on the murder weapon that did not match Williams, prompted a reexamination of the case.
St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell originally filed the motion to vacate Williams' conviction based on this DNA analysis, which was not available at the time of Williams' original conviction in 2001. As reported by FirstAlert4, Bell filed the motion because "there is overwhelming evidence that Marcellus Williams’ trial was constitutionally unfair." Attorney Tricia Rojo Bushnell added, "We will continue pursuing every possible option to prevent Mr. Williams’ wrongful execution."
The heart of Williams' appeal lies in the DNA evidence, which recent determinations suggest was contaminated over two decades ago by officials in the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office. However, the Judge Hilton's decision seems to close the doors opened by a 2021 Missouri law that allows prosecutors to request a court to vacate convictions they believe are unjust. "The decision of a prosecutor to move to vacate a murder conviction and death sentence is not done lightly," Bushnell told FirstAlert4, signaling a continued fight against what they deem a wrongful execution despite the recent ruling.
