JEFFERSON CITY, Missouri — Lawyers for a Missouri man set to be executed Tuesday night have filed a new appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court, claiming his trial was marred by racial bias and constitutional errors.

Marcellus Williams, 55, has long maintained his innocence in the 1998 death of Lisha Gayle, a social worker and former newspaper reporter who was repeatedly stabbed during a burglary of her suburban St. Louis home. His execution has been opposed by both Gayle’s family and the prosecution, which has put Williams on death row — an unprecedented combination.

“The family defines closure as allowing Marcellus to live,” the clemency petition reads. “Marcellus’ execution is not necessary.”

Williams’ hopes of having his sentence commuted to life in prison suffered a double setback Monday when, at almost the same time, Republican Gov. Mike Parson denied clemency and the Missouri Supreme Court declined to grant a stay of execution.

Attorneys working on behalf of Williams filed motions Monday night challenging the state Supreme Court’s decision.

“We have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to stay the execution of Marcellus Williams on Tuesday based on a revelation by the prosecutor that he removed at least one Black juror before the trial based on his race,” Tricia Bushnell, an attorney for Mr. Williams, said in a news release.

The prosecutor in the 2001 murder case, Keith Larner, testified at an August hearing that he rejected a potential black juror, in part because he looked too much like Williams. Williams’ lawyers said the ruling showed undue racial bias.

Bushnell said Larner removed six of the seven potential black jurors. The jury ultimately consisted of 11 white members and one black member. Larner claimed the jury selection process was fair.

The state Supreme Court on Monday afternoon unanimously upheld a lower court’s ruling that rejected Williams’ arguments.

“Despite nearly a quarter century of litigation in both state and federal courts, there is no credible evidence of actual innocence or any evidence of a constitutional error that undermines confidence in the original judgment,” wrote Justice Zel Fischer of the Missouri Supreme Court.

Parson accused Williams’ attorneys of attempting to “cloud the DNA evidence” with claims that the courts have repeatedly rejected.

“Nothing in the actual facts of this case has led me to believe in Mr. Williams’ innocence,” Parson said in a statement.

Parson, a former sheriff, has never granted a pardon in a death penalty case. Williams’ execution would be the third in Missouri this year and the 100th since the state resumed executions in 1989.

St. Louis County District Attorney Wesley Bell has sought to have Williams’ sentence thrown out, citing questions about his guilt. His office joined with attorneys from the Midwest Innocence Project in asking the U.S. Supreme Court for a stay.

“Even for those who disagree with the death penalty, the irreversible punishment of execution should not be an option if there is even a shadow of doubt about a defendant’s guilt,” Bell said in a statement.

This is the third time Williams has faced execution. He was less than a week away from lethal injection in January 2015 when the state Supreme Court stayed it, giving his attorneys time to conduct additional DNA testing.

He was hours away from execution in August 2017 when then-Governor Eric Greitens, a Republican, granted a stay and appointed a panel of retired judges to investigate the case. But that panel never reached a conclusion.

Questions about the DNA evidence also led Bell to request a hearing challenging Williams’ guilt. But days before the Aug. 21 hearing, new tests showed that DNA on the knife belonged to members of the prosecution who had handled the knife without gloves after the original forensic lab tests.

Because there was no DNA evidence to point to an alternative suspect, attorneys with the Midwest Innocence Project reached a compromise with the prosecution: Williams would enter a new, no-contest plea to first-degree murder in exchange for a new sentence: life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Judge Bruce Hilton signed the agreement, as did Gayle’s family. But at the urging of Missouri’s Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey, the Missouri Supreme Court blocked the agreement and ordered Hilton to proceed with an evidentiary hearing, which was set for August 28.

Hilton ruled Sept. 12 that the first-degree murder conviction and the death penalty would stand, noting that Williams’ arguments had all been previously rejected. That decision was upheld Monday by the state Supreme Court.

Prosecutors at Williams’ original trial said that on Aug. 11, 1998, he broke into Gayle’s home, heard water running in the shower and found a large butcher knife. Gayle, a former reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, was stabbed 43 times when she came downstairs. Her purse and her husband’s laptop were stolen.

According to authorities, Williams stole a jacket to cover up the blood on his shirt. Williams’ girlfriend asked him why he would wear a jacket on a hot day. The girlfriend said she later saw the bag and the laptop in his car and that Williams sold the computer a day or two later.

Prosecutors also cited testimony from Henry Cole, who shared a cell with Williams in 1999 while Williams was incarcerated on unrelated charges. Cole told prosecutors that Williams confessed to the killing and provided details about the killing.

Williams’ attorneys said fingerprints, a bloody shoe print, hair and other evidence at the crime scene did not match Williams.

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Salter reported from O’Fallon, Missouri.