Missouri death row inmate, 55, makes desperate plea days before his scheduled execution after maintaining his innocence in 1998 murder

A Missouri death row inmate who has long maintained his innocence in a 1998 murder is making a last ditch plea for a stay of execution.

Attorneys for Marcellus Williams, 55, who was convicted in 2001 of first-degree murder in the death of former newspaper reporter Felicia Gayle, petitioned the US Supreme Court to halt his death by lethal injection scheduled for September 24.

They argued in court documents that Williams' right to due process was trampled upon when Republican Missouri Gov. Michael Parson abruptly terminated an investigation into Williams' case.

His predecessor, former Gov. Eric Greitens, had halted Williams' execution indefinitely and formed a board of former judges to review his case and to determine whether Williams should be granted clemency.

The board investigated Williams' case for the next six years, but it is unclear whether it ever reached a verdict before Parson suddenly disbanded it.

'The Governor's actions have violated Williams' constitutional rights and created an exceptionally urgent need for the Court's attention,' the lawyers argued in the petition. 

Williams' attorneys noted that even the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney's Office announced earlier this year that there were constitutional errors in Williams' original trial - including the removal of one prospective black juror due to race.

'These would be key issues for the Board of Inquiry's consideration in whether to recommend clemency instead of execution - if the Governor had not wrongly dissolved the board,' the petition says.

Williams had previously filed a civil action challenging Parson's dissolution, and a trial court ruled that the governor exceeded his authority under state law and deprived Williams of his due process rights, according to the St. Louis-Post Dispatch. 

But the Missouri Supreme Court disagreed, and held that prisoners have no due process rights in clemency proceedings - prompting Parson to set Williams' September 24 execution date.

His attorneys and supporters are now using every available option to try to halt the 55 year old's execution.

In addition to the petition to the US Supreme Court, the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney's Office announced on Monday it will appeal to the Missouri Supreme Court a judge's ruling upholding the conviction and death sentence.

The following day, Williams' team of attorneys also announced they filed a motion asking the Missouri Court of Appeals to reconsider its 2010 denial of Williams' claim that a trial prosecutor unconstitutionally removed black prospective jurors because of their race.

Any of the three courts can issue a stay on Williams' execution to give judges more time to review the claims.

Prosecutors at Williams' original trial have said that Williams broke into Gayle's home on August 11, 1998, heard water running in the shower and grabbed a butcher knife.

When she came downstairs, Gayle was stabbed 43 times and her purse and her husband's laptop were stolen.

Authorities said Williams then stole a jacket to conceal blood on his shirt, prompting his girlfriend at the time to ask him why he would wear a jacket on a hot day.

That girlfriend later reported that she saw the stolen laptop in Williams' car and he sold it to a neighbor a day or two later.

Prosecutors also cited testimony from Henry Cole, wo shared a jail cell with Williams in 1999 when Williams was in prison on unrelated charges.

Cole told prosecutors Williams confessed to the killing and offered details about it.

But defense attorneys countered by saying both Williams' girlfriend and Cole were convicted of felonies and wanted a $10,000 reward for information about Gayle's death. 

Questions have since emerged about the integrity of that trial - which lead to Williams' conviction - with Democrat St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell citing concerns about DNA evidence on the butcher knife as he requested a hearing challenging Williams' guilt earlier this year.

He said that the evidence indicated that someone else's DNA was on the murder weapon.

But just days before an August 21 hearing, new testing showed the DNA evidence was spoiled because members of the prosecutor's office touched the knife without gloves before the original 2001 trial.

Attorneys with the Midwest Innocence Project then reached an agreement with the prosecutor's office under which Williams would enter a no-contest plea to first-degree murder in exchange for a new sentence of life in prison without parole.

Judge Bruce Hilton signed off on the agreement, as did Gayle's family.

But at the behest of Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey, the Missouri Supreme Court blocked the agreement and ordered Hilton to proceed with an evidentiary hearing. 

The judge then ruled on September 12 that the first-degree murder conviction and death sentence would stand.

'[Williams'] remaining evidence amounts to nothing more than re-packaged arguments about evidence that was available at trial and involved in Williams' unsuccessful direct appeal and post-conviction challenges,' Hilton ruled. 

'There is no basis for a court to find that Williams is innocent, and no court has made such a finding,' he continued. 

Still, Parson's office is being inundated with requests to stay Williams' execution.

The NAACP, for example, wrote to the governor arguing that the death penalty has been 'historically applied in a racially disparate manner' particularly in Missouri.

'Killing Mr. 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 worse of Missouri's past,' NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson and Missouri State Conference President Nimrod Chapel Jr. wrote. 

US Rep. Cori Bush also sent her own letter to Parson, urging him to stop Williams' execution.

'As lawmakers, we are committed to building a Missouri that is a beacon of justice, and we strive daily to represent the needs and demands of Missourians across the state,' she wrote in a letter shared to X.

'For this reason, we are urging you to immediately commute Mr. Williams' sentence and halt his execution.'

She then went on to highlight the efforts Williams' attorneys have made to prove his innocence, saying executing him would be a 'grave injustice and would do serious and lasting harm.'

A spokesman for Parson said attorneys for the governor's office have met with Williams' legal team and the governor will announce a decision at a later date - typically at least one day before the scheduled execution.

But Parson, a former county sheriff, has been in office for 11 executions and has never granted clemency.

If Williams were to die by lethal injection next week, his death would mark the third execution in Missouri just this year, and the 14th nationwide.