The Tuesday execution of Marcellus “Khaliifah” Williams, a Missouri man held on death row for 23 years for a 1998 murder he maintained he did not commit, followed months of pleas to have his life spared.
Attorneys, criminal rights activists and politicians spoke out to condemn the execution, carried out after requests for it to be stayed were denied by both the Missouri and United States Supreme Courts and after Republican Missouri Gov. Mike Parson declined Williams’ final appeal for clemency.
In the weeks — and, especially, days — leading up to Williams’ execution, Americans nationwide pleaded for Parson to commute Williams’ sentence to life without parole through a targeted campaign of calls, letters, faxes and a clemency petition signed by the victim’s family. The petition cited concerns over the DNA evidence, claims of racial bias in jury selection at Williams’ original trial and the victim’s family’s own call for Williams to be removed from death row.
Williams’ death by lethal injection on Tuesday at 6:10 p.m. CT has since led many Americans to question the integrity of a justice system and state actors that push to execute in the face of doubt of a defendant’s guilt and potentially exonerating evidence, especially when the original prosecuting office and the victim’s family no longer support such punishment.