The case of Marcellus Williams has received national attention in the days leading up to his execution on Sept. 24. The news that the state of Missouri executed Marcellus for a crime that prosecutors say he did not commit has many outraged, and just as many wanting to learn more about Marcellus’s life and his case.
Among the details of Marcellus’s life that many are curious about, some want to know what his last words were prior to dying by lethal injection. Here’s what we know about what his parting message was.
What were Marcellus Williams’s last words?
According to reporting in Newsweek , Marcellus’s last words prior to his execution were “All Praise Be to Allah in Every Situation!!!” which he hand-wrote. He submitted that statement to prison officials in the days before his execution, and ate a last meal of chicken wings and tater tots shortly before 11 a.m. He was also visited by Imam Jalahii Kacem, who accompanied him to the execution room.
Marcellus was in prison following his 2001 conviction for the murder of Felicia Gayle, a social worker and former reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch . The St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s office urged officials to call off Marcellus’s execution over concerns around jury selection and the possibility that racial bias had played a role in his verdict. DNA evidence found at the crime scene also did not match Marcellus’s DNA.