Associated Press
By JIM SALTER,
Associated Press2 days ago
Attorneys
for Marcellus Williams had asked the state Supreme Court and Gov. Eric Greitens
to stop the punishment, citing DNA evidence that they say exonerates him.
Williams, 48, is scheduled to die by injection Aug. 22 for fatally stabbing former
St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter Lisha Gayle in 1998 during a robbery at her
University City home.
In
a filing to the Missouri Supreme Court and a clemency request to the Republican
governor, Williams' attorneys said testing conducted in December using
techniques that were not available at the time of the killing shows DNA found
on the knife matches an unknown man, but not Williams.
"That
means in our mind the actual killer is not him," one of Williams' lawyers,
Kent Gipson, told The Associated Press in a phone interview Tuesday ahead of
the court's decision. "It certainly would give most reasonable people
pause to say, 'Should you be executing somebody when you've got reasonable
evidence suggesting another man did it?'"
After
the ruling, Gipson told St. Louis Public Radio that he was surprised by the
quick decision and planned to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
"Certainly
something involving a claim of innocence that is this substantial, you would
think they would at least write an opinion or at least a short opinion giving
the reasons why they denied it," Gipson said, "because that makes it
more difficult to take it up to a higher court because they don't know exactly
on what basis the ruling was made."
Loree
Anne Paradise, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Josh Hawley, said the office
remains confident that Williams is guilty based on other evidence in the case.
Greitens' spokesman, Parker Briden, declined comment, saying only that the
claim will need further review.
Gipson
said Williams' conviction was based on the testimony of two convicted felons
who were out for a $10,000 reward. One was Williams' former girlfriend; the
other a former cellmate.
Previous
DNA testing of hairs from Gayle's shirt and fingernails excluded Williams, too,
Gipson said. Footprints at the scene also did not match Williams.
The
42-year-old Gayle was stabbed repeatedly on Aug. 11, 1998, after surprising the
burglar in her home. Gayle was a reporter at the Post-Dispatch from 1981 to
1992.
Williams'
attorneys asked the state Supreme Court to appoint a special master to consider
the innocence claim, or to vacate the death sentence and commute it to life in
prison. Williams is also serving consecutive terms of life in prison for
robbery, and 30 years each for burglary and weapons crimes.
Missouri
has executed just one man in 2017. Mark Christeson was put to death in January
for killing a woman and her two children.
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