(RNS) — Marcellus “Khaliifah” Williams, an imam at Missouri’s Potosi Correctional Middle, is scheduled to be executed on Tuesday (Sept. 24), whilst his legal professionals and advocates proceed to argue his trial was plagued with racial bias and procedural errors.
The Missouri Supreme Courtroom met Monday to debate the arguments in Williams’ case, a day earlier than his scheduled execution.
Each the Innocence Mission and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) have been urging the general public to contact Governor Parson’s workplace in Missouri to remain the execution.
“He’s the lead Muslim spiritual chief for Muslims in his jail. And he’s by all experiences, , a respectful and respectable man who has made probably the most of his horrible scenario and doesn’t, shouldn’t be dying for against the law he didn’t commit,” mentioned Edward Mitchell, nationwide deputy director of CAIR.
An interfaith letter, signed by 69 Muslim, Christian and Jewish religion leaders, urged Governor Parson to grant Williams clemency.
“As an imam, Marcellus serves not solely his flock, a bunch of males, a lot of whom have been deserted by society and in determined want of steering and power, however the establishment as effectively — by offering an important community of assist for the prisoners,” reads the letter.
Williams, 55, transformed to Islam through the 24 years he has spent on Missouri’s loss of life row, after being convicted of the homicide of Felicia Gayle, a former reporter discovered stabbed in her house in 1998. He has maintained his innocence by a number of failed appeals and within the face of an earlier, stayed execution date.
In 2017, then-Governor Eric Greitens blocked Williams’ execution date when proof of an unknown particular person’s DNA was discovered on the homicide weapon and there was no hint of Williams’ DNA. Greitens appointed a board of inquiry to assessment proof for the case. In June 2023, present Governor Michael Lynn Parson dissolved the board with out permitting them to conclude, and Legal professional Normal Andrew Bailey appointed a brand new execution date.
Earlier this 12 months, Democratic St. Louis County Prosecuting Legal professional Wesley Bell filed a movement to overturn Williams’ conviction based mostly on new DNA proof that he argued on the time would exonerate Williams. Nonetheless, the DNA testing was discovered to be spoiled attributable to mishandling of the weapon by the prosecution.
Unable to make use of the DNA proof, advocates for Williams, together with the Midwest Innocence Mission, negotiated a plea cope with the prosecutor, wherein Williams wouldn’t admit guilt however would settle for a sentence of life with out parole. Choose Bruce Hilton agreed to the deal, as did the sufferer’s household, however Bailey fought the settlement, and the Missouri Supreme Courtroom overturned it.
In a closing try to remain the execution, Williams’ authorized staff argued Monday that the jury choice course of was racially biased, pointing to the 11 white folks chosen for the jury and the exclusion of at the very least one potential juror based mostly on race.
“On the evidentiary listening to on August 28, the prosecutor testified that his removing of at the very least one Black potential juror at Mr. Williams’ trial was based mostly ‘partially’ on the truth that he was Black,” in accordance with the assertion made by the Innocence Mission.
Tricia Rojo Bushnell, an legal professional representing Williams, corroborated that report, telling RNS on Monday that the prosecutor had, throughout testimony, “confessed that at the very least one juror he struck, partially due to his race, as a result of he was additionally a younger Black man that appeared just like the defendant.”
She additionally pointed to the usage of incentivized testimonies in Williams’ unique trial, noting each witnesses who incriminated Williams have been convicted of felonies and in search of a reward. As a result of significance of the prosecutor conceding error and the sufferer’s household supporting a sentence of life with out parole, Bushnell believes Williams shouldn’t be executed.
“The query is what are we pursuing? What’s the Legal professional Normal pursuing? As a result of the neighborhood has made clear by their duly elected prosecutor, as a result of the household has made clear, this isn’t what everybody needs. Executing Marcel Williams just isn’t justice,” mentioned Bushnell.
Williams could be the third particular person executed in Missouri this 12 months and the fifteenth nationwide.
Greater than 107,000 folks have contacted Governor Parson by calls, emails and tweets, and greater than 600,000 folks have signed the Innocence Mission’s petition to cease Williams’ execution, in accordance with the Innocence Mission’s press workplace.
“We’ve had over 30,000 folks signal our petition and make contact with the governor of Missouri since Friday, and that’s exceptional. We now have not often seen petition responses that giant in such a brief period of time. So, that is clearly getting the eye of the American public, particularly the American Muslim neighborhood,” mentioned Mitchell.