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Final words of Missouri man executed for woman’s murder revealed after her family calls to spare his life

BONNE TERRE, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri ওman convicted of breaking into a woman’s home and repeatedly stabbing her was executed Tuesday over the objections of the victim’s family and the prosecutor, who wanted the death sentence commuted to life in prison.

Marcellus Williams, 55, was convicted in the 1998 killing of Lisha Gayle, who was repeatedly stabbed during the burglary of her subu𝓰rban St. Louis home.

Williams was put t🍌o death despite questions his attorney💟s raised over jury selection at his trial and the handling of evidence in the case.

This booking photo provided by the Missouri Department of Corrections shows Marcellus Williams.
This booking photo provided by the Missouri Department of Corrections shows Marcellus Williams. AP

His clemency pet🍰ition focused heavily on how Gayle’s relatives wa🍬nted Williams’ sentence commuted to life without the possibility of parole.

“The family defines closure as𒐪 Marcellus being allowed to ཧlive,” the petition stated.

“Marcellus’ execution is not necessary.”

As Williams lay awaiting execution, he appeared to converse with a spiritual ad🎀visor seated next to him.

Williams wiggl🔜ed his feet underneath a white sheet that was pulled up to his neck and moved his head slightly while his spiritual advisor continued to talk.

Then Williams’ chest heaved about a half dozen times, and he showed no further movement.

Williams’ son and two attorneys watched from another room.

No one was present on behalf of the victim’s family.

The Department of Corrections released a brief statement that Williams had written ahead of☂ time, saying: “All Praise Be to Allah In Every Situation!!!”

Republican Missouri Gov. Mike Parson said he hoped the execution brings finality to a case that “languished for decades, revict💫imizing Ms. Gayle’s family over and over again.”

“No juror nor judge has ever found Williams’ innocence cla🍰im to be credible,” Parson said in a statement.

A rally in support of Missouri death row inmate Marcellus Williams on Aug. 21.
A rally in support of Missouri death row inmate Marcellus Williams on Aug. 21. AP

The NAACP had been among thos🌠e🦄 urging Parson to cancel the execution.

“Tonight, Miꦦssouri lynched another innocent Black man,” NAACP President Derr𓄧ick Johnson said in a statement.

It was the third time Williams faced execution.

He got reprie🌼ves in 2015 and 2017, but his last-ditch effoꩲrts this time were futile.

Parson and the state Supreme Court rejected his appe꧋als in quick succession Monday, 💮and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to intervene hours before he was put to death.

Last month, Gayle’s relatives gave their blessings to an agreement between t🐻he St𓄧. Louis County prosecuting attorney’s office and Williams’ attorneys to commute the sentence to life in prison.

But acting on an appeal from Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s office, the state S🔯upreme Court nullified the agreement.

Williams was am🗹ong death row inmates in five states who were scheduled to be put t🐻o death in the span of a week — an unusually high number that defies a yearslong decline in the use and support of the death penalty in the U.S.

The first was carried out Friday in South Carolina. Texas wꦚas 🐓also slated to execute a prisoner on Tuesday evening.

Gayle, 42, was a social worker and former St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter. Prosecutors at Wil♕liams’ trial said he broke into her home on Aug. 11, 1998, heard the shower running and found a large butcher knife.

Gayle was stabbed 43 time﷽s when she came downstairs.

Her purse and her husband’s laptop were stolen.

Authorities sa𒅌id Williamsꦉ stole a jacket to conceal blood on his shirt.

His 🍃🎉girlfriend asked him why he would wear a jacket on a hot day.

She said she later saw the purse and laptop in his car and that Williams sold the computer a day or two l✤ater.

Prosecutors also cited testimony from Henry Coleꦦ, who shared a cell with Williams in 1999 while Williams was jailed on unrelated charges.

Cole told prosecutors that Williams co꧃nfessed to the killing and provided details about it.

♎Williams’ attorneys responded that the girlfriend and Cole were both convicted of felonies and wanted a $10,000 reward.

They said that fingerprints🍸, a bloody shoeprint, hair and other evidence at the crime scene didn’t𒊎 match Williams’.

A crime scene investigator ♒had testified the killer wore gloves.

Questions about DNA evidence also led St. Louis Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell to request a hearing cha🐻llenging Williams’ guilt.

But days before the Aug. 21 hearing, new testing showed that DNA on the knife belonged to members of the🍌 prosecutor’s office who handled it without gloves after the original crime lab tests.

Without DNA evidence pointing to any alternative suspect, Midwest Innocence Project attorneys reached a comp💛romise with the prosecutor’s office: Williams would enter a new, no-contest plea to first-degree murder in exchange for a new sentence of life in prison without parole.

A no-contest plea isn’t an admission of guilt but is t🎀reated as such for the purpose of sentencing.

Judge Bruce Hilton signed offꦅ, as did Gayle’s family.

But Bailey appealed, and the state Supreme Court blocked the agreement and ordered Hilton to proceed with an evidentiary hearing, which🍨 took place last month.

Hilton ruled on Sept. 12 that the first-degree murder conviction and death sentence would st🍸and, noting that Williams’ arguments all had been previously rejected.

That decision was upheld Monday by the 🎃state Supreme Court.

Attorneys for Williams, who was black, also challenged the fairness of his trial, particula✃rly the fact that only one of the 12 jurors was black.

Tricia Bushnell🀅 of th🍃e Midwest Innocence Project said the prosecutor in the case, Keith Larner, removed six of seven black prospective jurors.

Larner testified at the August hearing that he struck on𝔉e potential black juror partly because he looked too much like Williams — a statement that Williams’ attorneys asserted showed improper racial bias.

🌟Larner contended that the jury selection process was fair.

Williams was the third Missouri inmate put to death this year🦄 and the 100th since the state resumed use of the death penalty in 1989.