Dear Editor:
Marcellus Williams is scheduled to be executed on Tuesday, Aug. 22. He was convicted of the Aug. 11, 1998, robbery and murder of 42-year-old Felicia Gayle in her St. Louis home.
I am against the death penalty on moral grounds, but on practical grounds it makes no sense as well. Consider that there are enormous costs to the state to carry through to an execution and that we have a patently unjust judicial system, especially for the poor.
Missouri's death penalty is broken for many reasons, including but not limited to racial injustice, disparities in representation and sentencing, prosecutorial misconduct and public opinion. These issues are all present in Williams' case. If you are wealthy, white and connected you will surely "get off." If you are poor, a racial minority, and have no connections you will surely receive the death penalty guilty or innocent of the accused crime.
Is Missouri executing an innocent man very possibly.
According to information from the Marshall Project, there is no physical evidence linking him to the crime - none of the DNA evidence matches that of Williams. "The little bit (of testing) that's been done excludes him. Marcellus has never confessed. There was no eyewitness testimony. The state's case rests on two snitches," who received monetary compensation. As well, Williams post-conviction remedies have not been exhausted in federal court, which he intends to pursue.
Missouri has set an execution date disregarding due process available to Williams.
Reading about Williams case, there is the question of why this execution is being pursued so vigorously by Missouri's Governor and Attorney General when, over many years, there have been so many missteps and clear uncertainty of guilt. One wonders if there are political careers attempting to be made on the backs of Missouri's most vulnerable.
You can learn more about the Marcellus Williams case at https://www.themarshallproject.org/next-to-die/mo or Missourians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, http://www.madpmo.org/.
Contact the offices of Governor Greitens and Attorney General Josh Hawley and ask them to stop this execution. Let Missouri be a state of "equal protection under the law," tempered by a highly developed sense of justice.
Sometimes a death penalty case is lacking credibility at such an important level that someone must speak up to preserve what might remain of a civilized and lawful society.