VOA News | Wednesday, September 25, 2024 
Missouri man executed despite prosecutor’s opposition

A Missouri man was executed on Tuesday, according to the man’s legal team, even though the prosecutor’s office that secured his murder conviction 21 years ago expressed doubts about the integrity of the case. The U.S. Supreme Court, the last body that could have halted the execution, declined to intervene in the case on Tuesday. Marcellus Williams, 55, was put to death by lethal injection shortly after 6 p.m. at a prison in Bonne Terre, according to The Innocence Project, whose lawyer worked with Williams. His death came a day after both Missouri Governor Mike Parson and the state’s highest court also rejected his last-ditch bids to avoid execution. Williams was found guilty in 2003 of killing Felicia “Lisha” Gayle, a former newspaper reporter who was stabbed to death in her home, though he has maintained his innocence. St. Louis County prosecuting attorney Wesley Bell, whose office handled the original prosecution, had sought to block the execution due to questions about the original trial. “Even for those who disagree on the death penalty, when there is a shadow of a doubt of any defendant’s guilt, the irreversible punishment of execution should not be an option,” Bell said in a statement before the execution…Read more