ST. LOUIS – The Missouri Supreme Court has rejected an attempt from the Missouri Attorney General to prevent an innocence hearing next month for Marcellus Williams, a man who claims innocence in a murder that landed him on death row.
The court rejected writ of prohibition from Attorney General Andrew Bailey, which sought to block the hearing ahead of Williams’ scheduled execution date in September.
A hearing remains planned as scheduled on Aug. 21 to determine if Marcellus Williams is innocent in the murder. If that is not the case, Williams face an execution date of September 24.
During the Aug. 21 hearing, St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell is expected to present new DNA evidence in hopes to overturn the conviction.
“We are relieved that the Missouri Supreme Court has turned away AG Bailey’s latest attempt to prevent the circuit court from considering the compelling evidence of Marcellus Williams’ innocence,” said Tricia Rojo Bushnell, attorney for Marcellus Williams, via a news release from the Innocence Project. “No one should stand in the way of this hearing, requested by the county prosecutor, aimed at ensuring Missouri does not execute an innocent man.”
Williams, 55, was convicted of first-degree murder in the 1998 stabbing death of Lisha Gayle during a robbery of her suburban St. Louis home.
He was hours away from execution in August 2017 when he was given a reprieve. Former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens halted the process, citing that testing unavailable at the time of the killing showed that DNA on the knife matched someone else, not Williams.
St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell filed a motion in January to vacate Williams’ murder conviction. Bell cited the new DNA evidence and said he believed Williams was not involved in Gayle’s death.
A Missouri law that took effect in 2021 allowed prosecuting attorneys, like Bell, to file a motion to vacate a conviction if they believe an inmate could be innocent or was otherwise erroneously convicted.
Before his murder conviction, investigators claimed that Williams broke a windowpane to get inside Gayle’s home on Aug. 11, 1998, heard water running in the shower, and found a large butcher knife. When Gayle came downstairs, she was stabbed 43 times. Her purse and her husband’s laptop were stolen. Gayle was a social worker who previously worked as a reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
