close
close

first Drop

Com TW NOw News 2024

    • Country responds to death sentence
    news

    Country responds to death sentence

    Vaseline Posted on

    Marcellus Williams was executed Tuesday in Missouri. He was convicted of the 1998 murder of Lisha Gayle, a former police reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. She was killed during a burglary at the suburban St. Louis home where she lived with her husband, a doctor.

    Williams, 55, who has maintained his innocence despite two previous stays of execution, is the third inmate executed in Missouri this year and the 15th person in the country.

    No DNA has ever been linked to Williams’ murder weapon. In recent months, St. Louis County District Attorney Wesley Bell filed a motion to overturn the death penalty, presenting a new DNA lab report that showed the murder weapon had been misused at Williams’ trial. The motion was denied, and Republican Governor Mike Parson and the Missouri Supreme Court pardoned Williams.

    William’s execution Tuesday night sparked reactions from Missouri and across the country. Here’s what you need to know.

    Execution draws widespread condemnation

    There was widespread protest on the Internet against Williams’ death penalty.

    “Tonight we are all witnesses to Missouri’s grotesque exercise of state power,” Williams’ attorney, Tricia Rojo Bushnell, said in a statement before the execution, noting how prosecutors “fought diligently to overturn the conviction and save Mr. Williams’ life.”

    Missouri Congresswoman Cori Bush said, “The state of Missouri and our nation’s justice system failed Marcellus Williams, and as long as we retain the death penalty, we will continue to perpetuate this depravity.”

    Derrick Johnson of the NAACP compared the execution to a lynching.

    “What message does this send to the people of Missouri and to people across the country?” Johnson said on X. “#MarcellusWilliams deserved to live.”

    Richard Branson, billionaire and co-founder of the Virgin Group, condemned the execution in a post on X.

    Conservative radio host Dana Loesch used the news of Williams’ execution to draw attention to the death of St. Louis police officer David Lee, who was killed Sunday when he was struck by a suspected drunk driver.

    This story is being updated continuously.

    Vaseline
    View all posts

    You Might Also Like