Sept. 24 (UPI) — Marcellus Williams was executed by Missouri on Tuesday evening for the 1998 murder of journalist despite objections from his attorneys and a state prosecutor.
Williams, 55, was executed by lethal injection at the Missouri State Prison in Bonne Terre. He was pronounced dead at 6:10 p.m. the Missouri Department of Corrections confirmed to UPI in a statement.
Williams, who also went by Khaliifah ibn Rayford Daniels upon converting to Islam, was convicted in 2001 for the stabbing death of Felicia Gayle in her home in 1998 and sentenced to death, though he maintained his innocence.
St. Louis County’s lead prosecutor and Williams’ attorneys sought a stay of execution based on recent testimony from the prosecutor in the 2001 trial and the results of DNA testing done recently that showed the evidence against Williams was contaminated. Gayle’s family had also asked for Williams’ life to be spared.
In a statement emailed to UPI following the death of their client, Williams’ legal team lamented “how rote application of a process to protect finality outweighs finding truth and achieving fairness.”