The Missouri Supreme Court and the state’s Republican Governor Mike Parson both rejected a request Monday from an inmate who tried to avoid his scheduled execution.

Marcellus Williams, 55, will be executed by lethal injection at 6 p.m. Tuesday in connection with the killing of Lisha Gayle, a social worker and former newspaper reporter who was stabbed more than 40 times during a burglary of her St. Louis home in 1998, The Associated Press reported. Williams has maintained his innocence.

Parson rejected Williams’s request for clemency to spare his life and instead sentence him to life in prison. The state Supreme Court also rejected a request to halt the execution so that a lower court could re-decide whether a prosecutor had wrongly excluded a potential black juror because of racial bias.

His attorney argued before the state Supreme Court that there were procedural errors in jury selection and the prosecution’s alleged mishandling of the murder weapon. The court unanimously upheld a lower court ruling that dismissed Williams’ claims.

SOUTH CAROLINA PRISONER DIED BY LETHAL INJECTION, ENDING STATE’S 13-YEAR BREAK IN EXECUTIONS

Marcellus Williams, 55, will be executed by lethal injection at 6 p.m. Tuesday (Missouri Department of Corrections via AP)

“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,” Judge Zel Fischer wrote in the state’s ruling.

Williams’ attorneys have also appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, but the case is still pending.

Parson said Williams’ attorneys were given ample legal opportunity to try to make their client’s case for his innocence. The governor also alleged that Williams’ attorneys tried to “muddy the waters on DNA evidence” with allegations that the courts have already dismissed.

“Nothing in the actual facts of this case has led me to believe in Mr. Williams’ innocence,” Parson said in a statement. “As such, Mr. Williams’ sentence will be carried out as ordered by the Supreme Court.”

The governor has never granted clemency in a case involving the death penalty.

St. Louis County District Attorney Wesley Bell has sought to have Williams’ sentence set aside, citing questions about his guilt. Bell plans to appeal the Missouri Supreme Court ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court, his spokesman told The Associated Press.

“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.

Tricia Bushnell, an attorney with the Midwest Innocence Project, said: “Missouri is on the verge of executing an innocent man, an outcome that calls into question the legitimacy of the entire criminal justice system.”

During Williams’ original trial, prosecutors alleged that on August 11, 1998, he broke into Gayle’s home, heard water running in the shower, found a large butcher knife and stabbed her 43 times as she came downstairs. Gayle’s purse and her husband’s laptop were stolen from the home.

BIPARTISAN GROUP OF TEXAS LEGISLATURERS DEMANDS EXECUTION OF CONVICTED MURDERER BE STOPPED: ‘SERIOUS DOUBTS’

Joseph Amrine, who was exonerated 20 years ago after serving years on death row, speaks at a rally in support of Missouri death row inmate Marcellus Williams on August 21, 2024 in Clayton, Missouri. (AP)

Williams was accused of stealing a jacket to hide blood on his shirt. Williams’ girlfriend asked him why he would wear a jacket on a hot day, and she said she later saw the bag and laptop in his car. Williams sold the computer a day or two later, his girlfriend said.

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

Williams’ execution would be the third Missouri has carried out this year and the 100th since the state resumed executions in 1989.

This was the third time Williams was about to be executed.

In January 2015, less than a week before his execution, the state Supreme Court quashed his execution so his attorneys could have time to conduct additional DNA testing.

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

Concerns about DNA evidence also prompted Bell to request a hearing challenging Williams’ guilt. But days before the Aug. 21 hearing, new tests revealed that DNA on the knife belonged to people in the DA’s office who had handled the knife without gloves after the original tests.

Missouri Governor Mike Parson delivers his State of the State address in Jefferson City, Missouri on January 18, 2023. (AP photo/Jeff Roberson)

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Because there was no DNA evidence to suggest an alternative suspect, attorneys for 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 reduced sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Judge Bruce Hilton and Gayle’s family signed off on the deal, but at the request of Missouri’s Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey, the Supreme Court blocked the agreement and ordered Hilton to proceed with an evidentiary hearing, which was held on August 28.

The prosecutor in the 2001 murder trial argued during the hearing that the jury was fair, even though it included only one black juror. The prosecutor said he removed one potential black juror, in part because he looked too much like Williams, which Williams’ attorneys said showed undue racial bias.

Hilton ruled earlier this month to uphold the first-degree murder conviction and the death penalty, underscoring that Williams’ arguments had all been rejected previously. The ruling was upheld by the state Supreme Court on Monday.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.