Conservative justices on the U.S. Supreme Court are under fire for refusing to halt the execution of Missouri death row inmate Marcellus Williams, who died by lethal injection Tuesday evening.
Williams was sentenced to death in 2001 for the murder of Felicia Gayle, who was found fatally stabbed in her St. Louis apartment in 1998. His lawyers had requested a last-minute stay on his execution before Missouri’s governor and state Supreme Court, as well as the U.S. Supreme Court, although all three refused to intervene in the days leading up to Williams’ death.
Justices on the High Court were split 6 to 3 in their decision on Tuesday, with liberal jurists Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson writing that they would have granted the stay request.
The St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office urged for a stay on Williams’ execution over concerns regarding the trial’s jury pool. DNA evidence collected at the scene of Gayle’s murder also did not link Williams.
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images; PHOTO OF WILLIAMS COURTESY OF HIS LEGAL TEAM
Family members of Gayle had also requested that Williams’ sentencing be reduced to life in prison, writing in a clemency petition that the family “defines closure as Marcellus being allowed to live.” Missouri Governor Mike Parson wrote in a statement on Tuesday that Williams’ execution closes the chapter on a case that “languished for decades, revictimizing Ms. Gayle’s family over and over again.”
Several commentators have bashed the conservative majority of the Supreme Court for denying Williams’ request for a stay. American author John Pavlovitz, a former Christian youth pastor, wrote to X, formerly Twitter, Tuesday night, “To hell with the Supreme Court Justices who have no regard for the life of people of color.”
Georgia State University College of Law professor Anthony Michael Kreis also blamed the High Court for Williams’ death, writing to X, “The State of Missouri murdered a man tonight. And the United States Supreme Court sat idly by.”
“The so-called ‘pro-life’ members of the Supreme Court have condemned a man to die by execution despite overwhelming evidence exonerating him,” Charlotte Clymer, a U.S. Army veteran and activist, posted on X. “These people don’t care about life. They only care about control.”
Missouri Representative Cori Bush, who had called on the Supreme Court to intervene in Williams’ execution earlier in the day, in a statement Tuesday evening accused her state and “Deadly Governor Mike Parson” of “knowingly and wrongfully” executing an “innocent man.”
“The state of Missouri and our nation’s legal system failed Marcellus Williams, and as long as we uphold the death penalty, we continue to perpetuate this depravity—where an innocent person can be killed in the name of justice,” Bush, a progressive, added.
Newsweek reached out to the Supreme Court’s public information office for comment.
The Supreme Court has rarely granted a stay of execution, although the justices did grant a last-minute stay in July for Ruben Gutierrez, a Texas death row inmate who was convicted in 1999 for the murder of an elderly woman during a robbery. Gutierrez’s legal team argues that DNA testing would prove he was not involved in the murder. The stay was issued just 20 minutes before Gutierrez was scheduled to be executed.
Williams was accompanied in the execution room on Tuesday by Imam Jalahii Kacem, and the Associated Press reported that Williams’ son and two lawyers were present for his death. His last meal consisted of chicken wings and Tater Tots shortly before 11 a.m. Tuesday. He died by lethal injection shortly after 6 p.m.
The Missouri Department of Corrections shared a handwritten final statement from Williams with Newsweek on Tuesday, which read, “All Praise Be to Allah in Every Situation!!!”
