Marcellus Williams, 55, was executed despite maintaining his innocence and claims that there is no DNA evidence linking him to the 1998 murder of Lisha Gayle. Governor Mike Parson upheld Williams' conviction and rejected calls for clemency.
A Death Row convict found guilty of a brutal murder more than two decades ago has been executed despite his consistent claims of innocence and claims there is no DNA evidence linking him to the crime.
"No jury nor court, including at the trial, appellate, and Supreme Court levels, have ever found merit in Mr. Williams' innocence claims," he declared. Emphasising the gravity of capital punishment cases, Parson stressed his commitment to the law and faith in the judicial process, reports the Mirror US.
“Tonight, Missouri will execute an innocent man, and they will do it even though the prosecutor doesn’t want him to be executed, the jurors who sentenced him to death don’t want him executed and the victims themselves don’t want him to be executed,” one of Williams’ attorneys, Tricia Rojo Bushnell, told CNN’s Jake Tapper before the execution. “We have a system that values finality over fairness, and this is the result that we will get from that.
“In this case, a new round of DNA testing proved the office was right all along; the knife in question has been handled by many actors, including law enforcement since being found,” Attorney General Andrew Bailey said. “In addition, one of the defence’s own experts previously testified he could not rule out the possibility that Williams’s DNA was also on the knife.
"Missouri is poised to execute an innocent man, an outcome that calls into question the legitimacy of the entire criminal justice system," said Williams' lawyer, Tricia Rojo Bushnell. The St Louis Prosecutor failed to overturn William's conviction after it was revealed that the trial prosecutor "contaminated potentially exculpatory DNA evidence," the organisation stated.
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