Marcellus Williams' son reveals heartbreaking final demand ahead of father's execution

Death row inmate Marcellus Williams' son has revealed his heartbreaking final demand for the United States Supreme Court ahead of his father's execution in Missouri Tuesday night.

In an interview with KSDK News, Marcellus Williams Jr. said he is praying for a miracle to halt his 55-year-old father's scheduled execution for the 1998 murder of Felicia 'Lisha' Gayle, a newspaper reporter who was found stabbed to death in her home.

'I hope Allah wishes to free my father from his enslavement and spare his life,' Williams Jr. said.

He added that he wants the US Supreme Court 'to see this is a murder on their behalf, and this is wrong.' 

'I believe my father is truly innocent and they need to take a closer look.' 

Prosecutors at Williams' original trial in 2001 have said that Williams broke into Gayle's home on August 11, 1998, heard water running in the shower and grabbed a butcher knife.

When she came downstairs, Gayle was stabbed 43 times and her purse and her husband's laptop were stolen.

Authorities said Williams then stole a jacket to conceal blood on his shirt, prompting his girlfriend at the time to ask him why he would wear a jacket on a hot day.

That girlfriend later reported that she saw the stolen laptop in Williams' car and he sold it to a neighbor a day or two later.

Prosecutors also cited testimony from Henry Cole, wo shared a jail cell with Williams in 1999 when Williams was in prison on unrelated charges.

Cole told prosecutors Williams confessed to the killing and offered details about it.

But defense attorneys countered by saying both Williams' girlfriend and Cole were convicted of felonies and wanted a $10,000 reward for information about Gayle's death.

Questions have since emerged about the integrity of that trial - which lead to Williams' conviction.

His attorneys have noted that a black juror was excluded from the jury pool, which comprised 11 white people and one black juror - prompting an investigation into the case under former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens, who halted Williams' execution indefinitely.

He formed a board of former judges to review the case and to determine whether Williams should be granted clemency. 

The board investigated Williams' case for the next six years, but it was abruptly shut down under current Gov. Michael Parson.

Williams' attorneys are now arguing to the US Supreme Court that by terminating the investigation, Parson trampled upon Williams' right to due process. 

'The Governor's actions have violated Williams' constitutional rights and created an exceptionally urgent need for the Court's attention,' the lawyers argued in a petition to stay the execution.

They went on to note that even the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney's Office announced earlier this year that there were constitutional errors in Williams' original trial - including the removal of one prospective black juror due to race.

'We have asked the US Supreme Court to stay Marcellus Williams' execution on Tuesday based on a revelation by the trial prosecutor that he removed at least one Black juror before trial based on his race, said Tricia Rojo Bushnell, an attorney for Mr. Williams. 

'We were astonished to learn that 'part of the reason' for striking a juror was because the juror was a young Black man with glasses, so that he and Mr. Williams 'looked like they were brothers.' 

'Under our Constitution, there is a right to a fair trial before a jury of our peers,' she noted. 'The prosecutor removed this juror because he looked like Mr. Williams' peer. 

'St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell has confessed constitutional error due to this racial bias during jury selection. We hope the Supreme Court will stay Mr. Williams' execution based on this new evidence of racial bias and the other serious doubts about the integrity of Mr. Williams' conviction.'

Bell has also raised concerns about the DNA evidence on the butcher knife as he requested a hearing challenging Williams' guilt earlier this year.

He said that the evidence indicated that someone else's DNA was on the murder weapon.

But just days before an August 21 hearing, new testing showed the DNA evidence was spoiled because members of the prosecutor's office touched the knife without gloves before the original 2001 trial.

Attorneys with the Midwest Innocence Project then reached an agreement with the prosecutor's office under which Williams would enter a 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 behest of Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey, the Missouri Supreme Court blocked the agreement and ordered Hilton to proceed with an evidentiary hearing.

The judge then ruled on September 12 that the first-degree murder conviction and death sentence would stand.

'[Williams'] remaining evidence amounts to nothing more than re-packaged arguments about evidence that was available at trial and involved in Williams' unsuccessful direct appeal and post-conviction challenges,' Hilton ruled.

'There is no basis for a court to find that Williams is innocent, and no court has made such a finding,' he continued.

Still, Parson's office was being inundated with requests to stay Williams' execution in recent weeks.

The NAACP, for example, wrote to the governor arguing that the death penalty has been 'historically applied in a racially disparate manner' particularly in Missouri.

'Killing Mr. Williams, a black man who was wrongfully convicted of killing a white woman, would amount to a horrible miscarriage of justice and a perpetuation of the worse of Missouri's past,' NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson and Missouri State Conference President Nimrod Chapel Jr. wrote.

US Rep. Cori Bush also sent her own letter to Parson, urging him to stop Williams' execution.

'As lawmakers, we are committed to building a Missouri that is a beacon of justice, and we strive daily to represent the needs and demands of Missourians across the state,' she wrote in a letter shared to X.

'For this reason, we are urging you to immediately commute Mr. Williams' sentence and halt his execution.'

She then went on to highlight the efforts Williams' attorneys have made to prove his innocence, saying executing him would be a 'grave injustice and would do serious and lasting harm.'

Meanwhile, Williams' attorneys have vowed to keep fighting for his life - even as his execution rapidly approaches.

'The public doesn't want this execution to move forward. The victim's family doesn't want this execution to move forward and the St Louis county prosecuting attorney's office doesn't want this execution to move forward,' Jonathan Potts, one of Williams's attorneys told The Guardian. 

'The attorney general's office, who had nothing to do with this whatsoever, are the ones who are trying to lead him to the death chamber. It's pretty startling and extraordinary.' 

Bell also said in a statement to the outlet Monday evening that the St Louis prosecutor's office 'will continue to do everything in our power to save his life.'

'Even for those who disagree on the death penalty, when there is a shadow of a doubt of any defendant's guilt, the irreversible punishment of execution should not be an option.' 

Potts also claimed the case would cause mistrust in the system but Williams has not given up hope.

'The only way you can create public confidence in the justice system is if the system is willing to admit its own mistakes … The public is seeing the justice system at its most dysfunctional here.'