On Tuesday, Sep. 24, 2024, Marcellus “Khaliifah” Williams was executed by the state of Missouri despite having no DNA evidence connected to him. Williams’ case goes back to the 1998 murder of Lisha Gayle, who was a news reporter and was killed during a burglary. She was found stabbed 43 times and taken from her home.
Williams was convicted in 2001 and claimed innocence from the beginning until the end.Â
The decision to give Williams capital punishment was met with heavy discourse, and for good reason, as many people across the country fought for his execution to be stopped. Not only did strangers send their support for the execution to be stopped, but the people part of the case showed no support for it either, as one of Williams’ attorneys, Tricia Rojo Bushnell, told CNN, “The prosecutor does not want him to be executed, the jurors who sentenced him to death do not want him executed, and the victims themselves don’t want him to be executed.” The top prosecutor in St. Louis County also asked for the conviction to be overturned after recent DNA testing showed evidence of contamination.
Despite the fight, Missouri Gov. Mike Parson and the Missouri Supreme Court denied Williams clemency, and the US Supreme Court failed to stop it.
Out of the 9 Supreme Court justices, the only three who said they would grant the request to pause the execution were Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson—the only three Justices appointed by Democratic presidents.
Abolish the death penalty. The death penalty is inhumane, and no government should have the power to kill other human beings.
The death penalty is a flawed system that we do not need. There is no evidence to support that it deters criminals and is irreversible. Hundreds of prisoners in the United States have been later exonerated of their crimes after they were already murdered by the hand of the government. It is a system too flawed to fix.
Although we cannot bring back Marcellus Williams and hundreds of other death penalty victims, one thing we can do is use our right to vote in the upcoming presidential election to fight against cruel and unusual punishment.