ST. LOUIS COUNTY — The state’s top legal official is asking the Missouri Supreme Court to block an August hearing to determine if Marcellus Williams, set to be executed in September, is innocent of murder.
Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s office filed the request late Thursday, arguing a St. Louis County Circuit Court judge does not have the authority to reverse or overrule Marcellus Williams’ first-degree murder conviction because a higher court has already issued a ruling in the case and set an execution date.
The petition also asked the Missouri Supreme Court to dismiss the innocence case altogether.
“Instead of trying to prevent the circuit court from considering the DNA evidence that exonerates Mr. Williams, the Attorney General should join us in this truth-seeking process in Mr. Williams’s case,†said Tricia Rojo Bushnell, one of Marcellus Williams’s attorneys, in a statement.
People are also reading…
St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell filed a motion in January to vacate the murder conviction and said he believed Williams was not involved in Gayle’s death because of new DNA evidence. A judge earlier this month scheduled an Aug. 21 hearing to consider overturning the murder conviction
Williams is set to be executed Sept. 24.
Bell’s office did not comment on the filing Friday, but a spokesman said Bell would respond to the Attorney General’s claims in court.
The Missouri Supreme Court last week denied Williams’ motion to vacate the execution, which said the date was too close to the pending hearing about the DNA evidence.
Williams was convicted of breaking into the suburban home of former Post-Dispatch reporter Lisha Gayle on Aug. 11, 1998, and stabbing her 43 times.
He was set to die in August 2017, but hours before his execution, then-Gov. Eric Greitens halted the process and ordered an investigation into DNA evidence that could not be tested at the time of the murder. That evidence showed there was DNA on the knife used to stab Gayle that matched someone else, not Williams.
He appointed five retired judges to investigate.
Six years later, Gov. Mike Parson disbanded the group in June 2023. It’s unclear whether they reached a conclusion.
Williams sued, and the Missouri Supreme Court set his September execution date hours after it ruled Parson was within his rights to break up the board and move forward with the execution.