This undated booking photo provided by the Missouri Department of Corrections shows Marcellus Williams (Photo Credit: AP)

Marcellus Williamsa 55-year-old Missouri man, was executed Tuesday despite objections from the victim’s family and the district attorney, who wanted to commute the death sentence to life in prison. Williams was convicted of burglary Lisha Gaylein 1998 at her home in a St. Louis suburb and stabbed her repeatedly.
Williams’ attorneys raised concerns about jury selection at his trial and the handling of evidence in the case. The clemency petition emphasized that Gayle’s family members wanted Williams’ sentence commuted to life in prison without the possibility of parole, saying, “The family defines closure as allowing Marcellus to live. Marcellus’ execution is not necessary.”
During the execution, Williams appeared to converse with a spiritual advisor and showed some movement before his chest rose and fell about a half dozen times. His son and two attorneys were present in another room, but no one was present from the victim’s family. The Department of Corrections released a brief statement that Williams had written in advance, saying, “Praise be to Allah in every situation!!!”
Governor Mike Parson and the state Supreme Court rejected Williams’ appeals, and the Supreme Court of the United States refused to intervene.
The NAACP urged Parson to quash the execution, with President Derrick Johnson saying, “Tonight, Missouri has lynched another innocent black man.”
Last month, an agreement between the St. Louis County District Attorney’s Office and Williams’ attorneys to commute the sentence to life in prison was overturned by the state Supreme Court, following an appeal by the Missouri Attorney General’s Office.
Questions about DNA evidence led to a hearing challenging Williams’ guilt, but new testing showed that the DNA on the knife belonged to members of the prosecution who had handled the knife without gloves.
Williams’ attorneys also challenged the fairness of his trial, specifically the fact that only one of the 12 jurors was black. The prosecutor, Keith Larner, testified that he rejected one potential black juror in part because he looked too much like Williams, which Williams’ attorneys said showed undue racial bias.
(This is a top story on Google Trends)