Unless the U.S. Supreme Court or Gov. Eric Greitens intervenes, , 48, will be executed at 6 p.m. Tuesday for the 1998 stabbing murder of former Post-Dispatch reporter Lisha Gayle. We knew Lisha. She would not have approved.
She was a kind and gentle woman who went out of her way to do nice things for people. She鈥檇 left the newspaper in 1992 to do full-time volunteer work. She was 42 when she was killed in the Ames Place home in University City that she shared with her husband, Dr. Daniel Picus.
Williams was in jail on another charge when he was arrested for the murder in June 1999. A man named Henry Cole, who鈥檇 shared a cell with him, told police Williams had admitted the crime to him. Later Laura Asaro, a former girlfriend, said Williams had told her about it, too. She directed police to the car Williams had driven the day of the crime. In it detectives found property belonging to Gayle. Police also recovered Dr. Picus鈥 laptop computer from a man who said Williams had sold it to him.
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There were a few problems with the trial. Gayle was white and Williams is black. Prosecutors excluded all but one black juror from the jury. Williams鈥 lawyers admitted they hadn鈥檛 fully vetted Cole and Asaro, the witnesses against Williams, and prosecutors didn鈥檛 volunteer all they knew about the witnesses鈥 The case hung on the testimony of snitches who may have been motivated by the $10,000 reward Dr. Picus had offered.
After Williams was convicted and sentenced to death in 2001, the began. Williams had been sentenced to die in January 2015 before the Missouri Supreme Court issued a stay and ordered a special master to examine DNA evidence.
There was no forensic evidence connecting Williams to the crime scene. The first DNA expert who examined blood evidence was unable to exclude Williams as a suspect. A second expert hired by Williams said she thought he could be excluded. Presented with the special master鈥檚 report on the DNA, the state Supreme Court without comment lifted the stay. Tuesday was set as the new execution date.
Then, just last week, a third expert, using newer techniques, reported that DNA from the knife that killed Gayle excluded Williams.
鈥淗ow much doubt must exist as to whether a condemned man is guilty before a reviewing court will find it constitutionally intolerable that he must forfeit his life at the hands of the state?鈥 Williams鈥 last-ditch appeal asks.
The Post-Dispatch opposes capital punishment under any and all circumstances, believing its administration is always arbitrary and always irrevocable. It has no deterrent value. If the state must execute, there must be no room for doubt.
Editor's note: This editorial has been changed to correct the spelling of聽Dr. Daniel Picus' name.