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Who is Marcellus Williams: Execution in Missouri despite evidence of innocence

356 points by bjourne

by diogenes_atx

2 subcomments

Many of the contributors to this thread are under the wrong impression that the police found the victim's laptop and other items in Marcellus Williams' car. This is not true. According to Wikipedia, the murder occurred in August 1998, but it was not until May 1999 that the victim's family "announced a $10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction in the case. In response, two individuals, Henry Cole and Lara Asaro, named Marcellus Scott Williams as the culprit."
The wikipedia article continues: "Lara Asaro, the girlfriend of Williams at the time of the crime, gave testimony that Williams had confessed to her... This is after she discovered evidence from the crime scene in Williams' car."
This is an important clarification: The police did not find the victim's property in Williams' car. Rather, Williams' ex-girlfriend, who was incentivized by reward money, claimed, more than 8 months after the crime, that she saw the victim's property in his car.
This is one of the the main reasons that the Innocence Project correctly argues that there is no reliable evidence linking Marcellus Williams to the murder.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Felicia_Gayle

by TrapLord_Rhodo

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Am i the only one in favor of capital punishment in this thread?
My mom used to work at state hospital for the criminally insane. The stories she would tell me about how these people got in there were absolutely brutal. (Canabalism, satanic sacrafices of loved ones, all manor of wierd shit.).
Instead of executing these lunatics, they send them to a "State Hospital" for rehabilitation. It's not a Prison, but a hospital so the conditions are great for the guy who ate his mom. So much so that some of the gang members claim 51/51 and say craay shit to the jury to get sent to a state hospital instead of prison.
The U.S. spends approximately $75 billion per year on incarcerating prisoners... You could build a city, every year for that amount.
Someone who commits capital murder, admits to it, does 30 years in prison. You have robbed them off all life. They aren't rehabilitated, they are just a hardened prison inmate with no chance to make it back in the real world so their only option alot of the time is to do what you've taught them in prison on release. Steal, lie, cheat and do anything you can to try and stay alive. So, it would cost approximately $2.43 million to imprison one person in California for 30 years. (California costs around ~81k per year per prisoner).
Death seems to be so feared nowadays to the point where they can justify taking away any sense of freedom, rights and soverignty and put you in a small cage for 30 years, but yet the death penalty is to far? If i ever get falsely accused of a crime that would send me to jail for life i would beg for the death penalty.

by anon291

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Reading the governor's letter it seems clear:
1. The witness who claimed Williams confessed provided non-publicly-available, but known-to-police, details about the case. This is very strong evidence that the confession was made to them.
2. The girlfriend's hesitation to go to police (she never asked for the reward money) is due to the fact that Williams threatened her family, which is a real threat considering his history of violence
3. The prosecution had several other witnesses that were not called to the stand to whom Williams told about the murder
4. Williams not only had Gayle's laptop, but had her husband's laptop and had sold it to someone. The police found the laptop and the owner identifier Williams as the seller.
5. Williams not only had her laptop but a bunch of household items. Tell me, when have you had several items from a murder victim in your car? Williams offers no explanation for where these came from.
Look... criminals are not the type to take responsibility for their actions. Williams criminal history and jailhouse violence indicate that this is not a man who learns from past mistakes, or who even think he needed reform of any kind.

by istjohn

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If we aren't going to abolish the death penalty, we should at least require a higher standard of proof than beyond a reasonable doubt to carry it out. It should require incontrovertible proof. Circumstantial evidence should not be allowed. Expert testimony should be barred. The evidence must be conclusive, plain, and certain to every member of the jury. This would allow you to execute, e.g., mass shooters who give themselves up, but make it extremely unlikely to irreversibly kill someone on the basis of junk science, induced or extorted testimony, or other fallible evidence.

by TrackerFF

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So it seems that the original case rested on the following:
- Williams GF witness testimony, that Williams confessed to her.
- Jailhouse witness testimony, that Williams had confessed to them.
- That Williams had items (purse, laptop, etc.) in his car, on the day or day after the murder.
But no DNA evidence?
A death penalty seems pretty egregious, when you have that kind of evidence. Seems like there's plenty of reasonable doubt in the picture.
(FWIW, I completely oppose the death penalty - on the grounds that innocent people have been executed. One is one too many)

by diogenes_atx

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Since capital punishment was reinstated in 1976 in the USA, many innocent Americans have been executed by the state. There is a considerable literature of scholarly research documenting this issue. For those interested in learning more, I highly recommend the following books:
Justin Brooks (2023) You Might Go to Prison Even Though You're Innocent, University of California Press
https://www.amazon.com/Might-Prison-Though-Youre-Innocent/dp...
Brandon Garrett (2011) Convicting the Innocent: Where Criminal Prosecutions Go Wrong,‎ Harvard University Press
https://www.amazon.com/Convicting-Innocent-Where-Criminal-Pr...
Mark Godsey (2017) Blind Injustice: A Former Prosecutor Exposes Psychology and Politics of Wrongful Convictions, University of California Press
https://www.amazon.com/Blind-Injustice-Prosecutor-Psychology...

by rdtsc

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> Even the victim’s family believes life without parole is the appropriate sentence
That is odd, if there is no evidence that links him to the crime why not argue to let him go? Is that just from a desire to have someone punished, no matter who it is.

by game_the0ry

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Does anyone find it deeply disturbing that the justice system will just sit on its own hands when presented with new evidence? It seems like prosecutors are more interested in maintaining a hi conviction rate rather than seeking justice. Judges seem totally apathetic.

by n1b0m

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There was another execution in South Carolina on Friday despite new evidence of innocence
https://amp.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/sep/20/south-caroli...

by CollinEMac

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Update: it's too late...
> Marcellus Williams, whose murder conviction was questioned by a prosecutor, died by lethal injection Tuesday evening in Missouri after the US Supreme Court denied a stay.
> The 55-year-old was put to death around 6 p.m. CT at the state prison in Bonne Terre.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/24/us/marcellus-williams-schedul...

by lapestenoire

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I am very happy when I see The Innocence Project taking on a case like this because it tells me they have already worked through the backlog of actually innocent people as well as the people who might possibly be innocent, and now have worked there way to the cases which are 1% flawed but in which the correct perpetrator has nevertheless been identified, tried by a jury of his peers, convicted, appealed, etc.

by jstummbillig

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> “The family defines closure as Marcellus being allowed to live,” the petition stated. “Marcellus’ execution is not necessary.”
Imagine we lived in that world.

by anonzzzies

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Still not sure with so many of the (esp right leaning) in the US claiming to be christian, can also accept this as a punishment. But I get nonsense begets more nonsense.

by olivermuty

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It doesn't say in the article, but he was executed last night :(

by yawpitch

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I was foreman of a jury on a murder trial once; it’s my signature on the verdict form that sealed the fate of a man. In an extremely real and personal sense, I am directly responsible for putting a man in prison, and given his age, health conditions, and the sentence that was going to be passed, that means I’m directly responsible for ensuring a human being dies in prison.
I ask myself every day if we made the right decision. We passed the bar of reasonable doubt, but we did that entirely because the prosecutor’s office had infinite resources and a homeless Black defendant with HIV and addiction had zero resources and an obviously less than interested (or prepared) public defender who had given up the fight.
If I’d been his lawyer, I’m sure I could have gotten him off, and IANAL… I just would have poked at obvious and extremely reasonable holes in the prosecutor’s story.
Because the prosecutor had nearly infinite resources (victim brought significant press attention) they had nearly infinite power to keep retrying until the defense was simply overwhelmed.
Don’t know a damned thing about this case, but after seeing how the sausage that is the law actually plays out and how very little anything in a real court resembles TV, I don’t think anyone should ever ask a juror to pass a death sentence on someone else. It’s simply impossible to take resource bias out of the equation, and doubt that would have been reasonable if it had just been brought up by an overworked public defender will haunt you… in my case nearly 20 years later.

by sashank_1509

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It seems wrong, that the 2 major points of evidence against Marcellus are a testimony from his ex and cellmate. I don’t trust humans, to trust convicting people based on 2 hearsay sources of testimony. Maybe this worked in the past when America was smaller and the average morality of a person was very high, but now this just seems ripe for abuse.
I wouldn’t use this evidence to make a decision in an office dispute.

by jimt1234

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I applaud the Innocence Project for taking this case, but honestly, Missouri? What did they expect? This is the same governor that tried to prosecute a newspaper reporter after they uncovered social security numbers in the HTML code from a state-run website. Then, when the governor was informed about how stupid his claim was, he doubled-down, insisting he would seek prosecution.
https://www.npr.org/2021/10/14/1046124278/missouri-newspaper...

by nycticorax

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Is the transcript of the original court case available online somewhere? The oldest thing I'm seeing is
https://law.justia.com/cases/missouri/supreme-court/2003/sc-... ,
which is (I think...) the decision of the state supreme court on the appeal. There are several points where it seems like there is some dispute about what exactly the evidence is tying Williams to the murder, and where the original trial transcript might help clarify things.

by plandis

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It’s sad that the US government unnecessarily deprived a human being of their right to life.
I hope one day the people involved are prosecuted for this premeditated murder.

by jmyeet

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If you're wondering if the Missouri governor Mike Parson sparingly uses his clemency and pardon power, you'd be mistaken [1]:
> Parson, a former sheriff, has now granted clemency to more than 760 people since 2020 — more than any Missouri governor since the 1940s
including those who waved guns at BLM protestors [2] and the son of the KC Chiefs coach who caused grave bodiy injuries to someone in a DUI.
Available data shows a pretty clear trend [3]:
> An analysis of available demographic data conducted by the Missouri News Network indicates that almost 90% of those who have been granted clemency by the governor are white.
If you're wondering where the US Supreme Court stands on this, consider this quote from then-Justice Antonin Scalia [4]:
> [t]his court has never held that the Constitution forbids the execution of a convicted defendant who has had a full and fair trial but is later able to convince a habeas court that he is ‘actually’ innocent.
Also, consider this racial bias demonstrated in the exoneration for those sentence to death [5]:
> Since 1973, at least 189 people wrongly convicted and sentenced to death have been exonerated. 100 of the death row exonerees are Black.
Lastly, even if you want to ignore the immorality of the death setnence, look at it from the lens of cost [6]. Death penalty cases are substantially more expensive to litigate and death row inmates are substantially more expensive to incarcerate. A life-without-parole would be substantially cheaper.
Also, you can release someone from prison wrongly convicted. You cannot bring them back to life and there are multiple cases of people who were executed and later exonerated. Williams is sadly added to that list.
[1]: https://apnews.com/article/kansas-city-chiefs-britt-reid-com...
[2]: https://www.npr.org/2021/08/03/1024446351/missouris-governor...
[3]: https://www.columbiamissourian.com/news/state_news/governors...
[4]: https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/stories/associate-justice-anton...
[5]: https://www.naacpldf.org/our-thinking/death-row-usa/
[6]: https://www.amnestyusa.org/issues/death-penalty/death-penalt...

by ein0p

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Utterly pointless to argue this since we do not have access to the totality evidence and testimony that the Court and the jury had access to. Could it be that they were wrong? Unlikely but yes. Is it likely that we here are “less wrong”. Not a chance

by monero-xmr

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The prosecutor who wanted to pardon him was not the original prosecutor, but a recent progressive elected one. The original prosecutor still believes he is guilty. Furthermore it is highly suspect that he was caught selling the laptop stolen from her house and the story about how he came into it is implausible.
People who are willing to commit murder are often sociopaths and pathological liars. It isn’t surprising he would maintain his innocence for years.
That said we shouldn’t execute him, there’s enough doubt to make it possible he didn’t do it and executing an innocent man is horrendous. And IMO we should eliminate the death penalty anyway.
But regardless, I still find the weight of evidence much stronger in favor of guilt over innocence.

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by yieldcrv

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Its wild how these discussions dont factor in who the murderer is
Just out there walking around somewhere

by 7ero

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by euroderf

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It is evil. The governor is evil. 'Nuf said.

by BostonFern

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From CNN:
“Other evidence that helped convict Williams ‘remains intact,’ the attorney general said.
‘The victim’s personal items were found in Williams’s car after the murder. A witness testified that Williams had sold the victim’s laptop to him. Williams confessed to his girlfriend and an inmate in the St. Louis City Jail, and William’s girlfriend saw him dispose of the bloody clothes worn during the murder,’ the attorney general’s office said.”
https://lite.cnn.com/2024/09/24/us/marcellus-williams-schedu...

by dbrans

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Marcellus Williams was executed yesterday, Tuesday. https://apnews.com/article/missouri-execution-marcellus-will...

by spacechild1

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There is no place for the death penalty in a civilized country!

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by nevercomingback

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by gruntledfangler

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by Eumenes

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by shadowtree

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by ugh123

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Ah, Republicans are the responsible party here. Right to life my ass.

by mykowebhn

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Why is this submission not on the front page if it has so many upvotes in the past hour, and the number of upvotes exceeds the number of comments?

by timwaagh

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the American justice system is flawed. It's mob justice that was only fit for the 1700s when there was nothing better. Or maybe there was,I wasn't around. Untrained people can't decide on guilt or innocence. They can't judge evidence. They allow themselves to be swayed by beauty or likeability to greater extent. They're lives are no good, on average. This makes most of them mean and vindictive. If they can allow someone to suffer like they have, it feels good to them.
I'm not sure whether it's racism. It's the usual explanation for this phenomenon. I can understand racism. I don't believe in opening the floodgates. it sounds more like plain bloodlust. Because blood is what you're going to get if you go on this way.

by kkfx

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To my European eye I'm curious why those who have ordered and those who have executed the wrongfully convicted prisoner, despite the evidence, are not arrested for aggravated murder... It's simple: they have choose, they are responsible for an homicide PERIOD.