Missouri executed death row inmate Marcellus Williams on Tuesday, September 24, at the Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center in Bonne Terre. His death by lethal injection came after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected his final appeal. Williams, 55, used his last words to say, “All praise to Allah in every situation.”
Williams had been sentenced to death for the 1998 murder of Felicia Gayle, a former reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Gayle was brutally stabbed over 40 times during a daytime burglary at her home in University City, Missouri. The murder weapon, a butcher’s knife from her own kitchen, was used in the attack.
Despite the conviction, Williams had supporters who argued for clemency. St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell, along with members of Gayle’s family, had asked that the execution be stopped.
Who Was Marcellus Williams?
Marcellus Williams was convicted in 2001 for Felicia Gayle’s murder. Evidence from the crime scene, such as …