Imagine waking up one morning, expecting to enjoy another beautiful day with your family, only to be met with police swarming your home and arresting you for murder. Despite there being no evidence connecting you to the crime, governors, judges, and the U.S. Supreme Court fight to convict you of murder. Not only are you humiliated in front of your loved ones and community and your freedom taken away from you but you are given capital punishment. During your years spent behind bars, you wonder “Why me?” The simple answer: your skin color.
Marcellus Williams, a 55-year-old black man, was wrongfully convicted and died of lethal injection in Missouri on September 24, 2024.
Historian Ibram Kendi described the injustice that occurred in the state of Missouri, stating that “Missouri lynched Marcellus Williams.”
Lynching is defined as an extrajudicial killing by a group, historically used to oppress the black community, and was officially outlawed in a 1918 bill in Missouri.
Over a century later, Missouri’s own governor committed what some see as a lynching of an innocent black man.
Marcellus Williams was wrongfully convicted of the 1998 murder of a white woman in St. Louis, Missouri. The St. Louis prosecutor’s office had admitted it was “wrong” and even fought to overturn the death sentence due to the lack of evidence against Mr. Williams, mishandling of evidence, constitutional violations, and overall miscarriage of justice. Mr. Williams received a stay of execution in 2015 and then again in 2017, but his conviction was never thrown out.
A new law introduced in 2021 enabled prosecutors to bring a motion to overturn a conviction if they believe there was a miscarriage of justice.
The prosecutor for St. Louis Country, Wesley Bell, filed this motion in January 2023, arguing that there had been multiple violations of Mr. Williams’s constitutional rights during his trial and investigation. In this motion, Mr. Bell failed to include that a prosecutor, Keith Larner, unjustly rejected possible black jurors, leading to 11 white jurors and one black juror being placed on his case. When asked about it, Mr. Larner stated he rejected one of the black jurors because “They [Mr. Williams and the juror] looked like they were brothers.”
Mr. Bell also rested his case for Mr. Williams’ innocence and false conviction on the fact that the forensic evidence left behind (fingerprints, footprints, hair, and trace DNA on the murder weapon) did not match Mr. Williams. Mr. Bell also emphasized issues with the two key witnesses and their credibility considering the fact that they were incentivized by promises of leniency in their own pending criminal cases as well as reward money.
As Mr. Bell’s motion made its way through the court system, Andrew Bailey, the state attorney general, asked the State Supreme Court to set an execution date, which ended up being September 24, 2024.
However, prior to the execution date, a new analysis of the knife showed the DNA of Mr. Larner and an investigator of the trial. Mr. Bell asserted that had this evidence not been mishandled, Mr. William’s innocence could have been proved once more.
On September 12, 2024, Mr. Bell’s motion to cancel William’s previous conviction and death sentence was denied.
The State Supreme Court and Judge Hilton rejected the arguments about constitutional violations. Enraged, many supporters of Mr. Williams (like the N.A.A.C.P.) called for him to be pardoned.
However, Republican Missouri Governor Mike Parson stated that the decision was final on Monday, September 23, 2024. The next morning, they turned to the U.S. Supreme Court for clemency, but the request was denied. Later that day Marcellus “Khaliifah” Williams was given a lethal injection at 6:00 p.m.
Regardless of one’s perspective on the death penalty, it is indisputable that a severe abuse of power and injustice occurred in this case. Mr. Williams was wrongfully convicted of a crime and had to pay the ultimate price due to prosecutors’ misjudgment and prejudice.
It is hypocritical for a system that was constructed to bring justice to innocent victims to commit such abhorrent acts of racism and injustice. Not only that, but it is ignorant to disregard the role that race played in this trial and many similar cases.
Governor Parson has a history of racial discrimination, wrongfully and harshly convicting many innocent black people and pardoning white criminals, proven to have committed violent crimes.
For example, Governor Parson pardoned a white couple after they pointed and waved guns at crowds of Black Lives Matter activists, who were peacefully protesting. In another case, Parson stated plans to pardon a former police officer who wrongfully shot and killed Cameron Lamb, a 26-year-old black man.
This isn’t speculation, but fact. Black people are seven times more likely to be falsely convicted of murder than innocent white people. Whether you believe it is relevant to this case or not, racial bias exists in the criminal legal system.
“When this topic is debated, folks want you to believe the killers on death row are the victims,” said Governor Parson, “If a person is willing to violently take another’s life, they should pay the price established in this state. They should not get a free pass to spend the rest of their natural life in the relative comfort of a prison, paid for by the taxpayers.”
It is sickening to see Governor Parson’s hypocrisy, since, by his logic, he should be behind bars, not influencing an entire state and making decisions for the people.
Governor Parson should be condemned for his acts. Those who read the case information saw the facts, and acknowledged Mr. William’s innocence, but still pushed for and allowed the death sentence should be ashamed.
Governor Parson, Mr. Larner, and all those who played a role in William’s death and the wrongful convictions of others should be embarrassed and their positions should be questioned on the basis that their actions have shown their racist nature.
It is imperative to acknowledge this injustice and challenge these institutions which continue time after time to show their inherent prejudice.
