A Black man is scheduled to be lynched Tuesday. But he is innocent. DNA evidence proves it.
Missouri Gov. Mike Parson can stop this execution before it is too late.
In 1998, Marcellus Williams was wrongfully accused of killing Felicia Gayle. And he has spent 24 years in prison despite not committing this crime.
According to the prosecuting attorney for St. County, as well as the Special Counsel for Wrongful Convictions, “none of this physical evidence tied Mr. Williams to Ms. Gayle’s murder.” They filed motions to reverse the conviction.
So why is Williams scheduled to be executed Tuesday?
Killing Williams, a Black man who was wrongfully convicted of killing a white woman, would amount to a horrible miscarriage of justice and a perpetuation of the worst of Missouri’s past. Taking the life of Marcellus Williams would be an unequivocal statement that when a white woman is killed, a Black man must die. And any Black man will do.
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We’ve seen this before in the darkest moments of American history.
As noted by the Death Penalty Information Center: “Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, at least 60 Black Missourians were killed in lynchings, making it the state with the second highest number of racial terror lynchings outside of the South.”
In 1909, the NAACP was founded in response to the lynchings that took place across our country — the baseless killings of Black people for no reason other than being Black. That was in 1909. We are now in 2024, and we still have to fight against the barbaric killing of Black people.
According to the University of Birmingham, at least one in 10 people who are executed have been proven innocent. Williams will be one of those wrongfully killed unless Gov. Parson steps in.
In 2017, Republican Gov. Eric Greitens granted a stay for Williams after reviewing the DNA evidence which found no trace of Williams’ DNA on the knife used to kill Gayle. Does this DNA evidence suddenly not matter anymore?
There is no just reason for him to be scheduled for execution tomorrow.
This is not an issue of ideology. Nor is it a conservative issue or progressive issue. It’s about right versus wrong. It’s about the innocent life that will be snuffed out without due cause.
Gov. Parson has both the capability and the responsibility to halt Williams’ execution and ensure Missouri isn’t complicit in our country’s dark past of lynching. Let us turn away and rebuke the times when Black men were killed for no reason.
Gov. Parson, your legacy is on the line here. Will you be remembered as the leader who stands against injustice? Or will your governorship be forever tainted by the blood of an innocent man?
Do the right thing.
Whichever you decide, America is watching. Missouri is watching. And we will never forget which decision you make.