Marcellus Williams is at risk of being executed in Missouri for the 1988 murder of Felicia Gayle, a former St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter in St. Louis, who was stabbed to death in her home. No execution date is currently set, however, in June 2023, Gov. Mike Parson lifted Marcellus' stay of execution, which had bee issued by former Gov. Eric Greitens minutes before Marcellus' 2017 scheduled execution.  Williams is at risk of receiving a new date at any time.

Update: On August 6, 2023, Missouri Gov. Mike Parson announced he will allow a panel of five former judges to review the death penalty case of Marcellus Williams, whose guilt in the stabbing death of a former newspaper reporter has been called into question by DNA evidence. The inquiry was initially ordered by former Gov. Eric Greitens."

Almost Marcellus' entire conviction rested on inconsistent testimonies from two individuals who were incentivized to testify against Marcellus. Recent testing from 2016 of evidence from the crime scene entirely excluded Marcellus, thereby wholly contradicting the testimony used to secure his conviction, yet he is still imminently at risk of execution in Missouri.

Main concerns with Marcellus' case (From the Innocence Project):

• Marcellus has been excluded as the source of DNA evidence found on the murder weapon.
• No court has reviewed the exculpatory DNA evidence.
• The prosecution's case against Marcellus was entirely based on unreliable testimony from 2 incentivized witnesses.
• No scientific or eyewitness evidence connects Marcellus to the crime.
• Former Gov. Greitens stayed Marcellus' 2017 execution based on powerful DNA evidence.

To read more about Marcellus' case, please visit the Innocence Project and Missourians to Abolish the Death Penalty.

Missouri makes itself an outlier in its use of the death penalty. In fact, since the pandemic began, Missouri has been one of only a handful of states that has carried out an execution since 2020.

The majority of other states are on a downward trend of executions, and increasingly, states are abolishing the practice altogether, including the southern state of Virginia, which repealed its death penalty law in 2021.

Please sign the petition asking Governor Mike Parson to do everything within his power to prevent an execution from occurring, including reissuing a stay for Marcellus, and seeking a path to clemency in the case.