Prosecutors raise concerns about lack of evidence as family of victim supports saving Williams from the death penalty
Missouri is slated to execute a man on death row on Tuesday, despite objections from prosecutors who have suggested he was wrongfully convicted.
Marcellus “Khaliifah” Williams, 55, is due to be killed by lethal injection even after the office of the St Louis county prosecuting attorney, which originally convicted him, sought to have his case overturned. Prosecutors have raised concerns about the lack of DNA evidence linking Williams to the 1998 killing of Lisha Gayle and have said that Williams did not get a fair trial.
Although the prosecuting office and victim’s family backed an agreement to have Williams avoid the death penalty, Missouri’s Republican attorney general, Andrew Bailey, has fought to allow the execution to proceed.
“The public doesn’t want this execution to move forward. The victim’s family doesn’t want this execution to move forward and the St Louis county prosecuting attorney’s office doesn’t want this execution to move forward,” said Jonathan Potts, one of Williams’s attorneys, in an interview Monday. “The attorney general’s office, who had nothing to do with this whatsoever, are the ones who are trying to lead him to the death chamber. It’s pretty startling and extraordinary.”
I think it’s reasonable to say he might still be guilty. The victim’s personal items were found in his car, after all.
However, there’s doubt and execution leaves no room for doubt. The fact that they’re willing to murder a man whose guilt/innocence is in question is unconscionable.
The article says they were claimed to be found in his car by a then-girlfriend who took $10,000 reward money to testify, not that they were found by law enforcement and collected as evidence and checked against a list of things that were known to have been stolen. It’s plausible that nothing was found and the whole story was made up for cash, or that it was just some stuff he’d bought at a yard sale that was misidentified, or something he’d stolen from somewhere else. Someone saying someone had junk in their car isn’t strong evidence of anything.
There was no evidence he was at the crime scene: no fingerprints that match his, no DNA of his, no footprints that match his, no cloth/fiber samples from him, nothing. There actually was a ton of evidence left behind at the scene, but none of it connects to him.
There is no forensic evidence connecting him to the murder weapon, possibly because it was wildly mishandled by the police and the prosecutor.
There are no eye-witnesses saying that he was at the scene.
The items of hers in his car were not found by police officers and were not produced as evidence in the trial. The items were reportedly found by an ex-girlfriend who got a big reward for turning him in, and she only claimed to have seen the items, never actually showing the items to anyone.
The only other witness in the case was a cell-mate who claimed he confessed while in jail, and this jailhouse snitch ALSO claimed a big reward.
…
Yet with no tie to the crime scene, no tie to the victim, no tie to the weapon, no witnesses, no provable tie to stolen objects, and the word of a jailhouse snitch… you think it’s reasonable to say he might still be guilty? Jesus fucking christ.
He admitted to selling the laptop but claims the girlfriend gave it to him to sell, but he certainly had possession of it.
I still believe the death sentence should be removed from the table if there’s even a shred of doubt which there is plenty of in this case.
I worked at a gas station for years in a poor town and I bought and sold several used computers that sometimes ended up being stolen. I always did my best to make sure that didn’t happen. I’d check the personal info on the drives before I’d clear them and try to get up with the people who originally owned them. I probably returned at least 15 of them over the years.
It’s crazy to think that I could have ended up being charged with murder if I had been pulled over with some shit in my car.
One time I got a sob story, “I lost my job bro. You can get my Xbox 360, my tv, my laptop, and all these games right now for 100 bucks.” I lost that 100 bucks because I contacted the Xbox account and found that the stuff had all been stolen and I returned it. Imagine if someone had killed someone to get that stuff and I got pulled over with it.
They gave me a cheap guitar for returning it. They didn’t have to do that and I’ve always appreciated it. It’s risky being in a poor town and buying things for resell.