Two people on death row in the United States were executed on Tuesday, including a black man convicted of murder who had claimed his innocence and won support from civil rights groups. Marcellus Williams, 55, was sentenced to death in the midwestern state of Missouri for the 1998 killing of Felicia Gayle, a former newspaper reporter.
He was pronounced dead at 6:10 p.m. local time on Tuesday, according to the Missouri Department of Corrections.
Travis Mullis, 38, was also sentenced to death for crushing his 3-month-old son, Alijah Mullis, to death in 2008 in Huntsville, Texas.
In his final statement, Mullis said, “I regret the decision to take my son’s life, and I apologize to my son’s mother and the victim’s family.”
Undated photo of Travis Mullis
Photo Credit: AFP
Both men were executed by lethal injection, bringing the total number of people executed in the US this year to 16.
Williams has insisted he is innocent and the NAACP civil rights group has urged Governor Michael Parson to stay his execution.
Parson said Tuesday that Williams’ execution in Missouri would proceed despite the protests.
“No jury or court, including at the trial, appeals, and Supreme Court levels, ever found merit in Mr. Williams’ claim of innocence. At the end of the day, his guilty verdict and death sentence were upheld,” Parson said in a statement.
The US Supreme Court on Tuesday also rejected Williams’ last-ditch request to stay his execution.
British billionaire Richard Branson, who bought a full-page advertisement in the Kansas City Star newspaper denouncing a “catastrophic failure of justice”, mourned Williams’ execution on social media.
“This is a shameful day for Missouri, and a shameful day for Governor Mike Parson,” Branson wrote on the post.
Felicia Gayle was found dead in her home in St. Louis, Missouri, stabbed 43 times with a kitchen knife in what appeared to be a burglary.
Williams, who had previous convictions for burglary and robbery, was convicted based on the testimony of his former jail cellmate and ex-girlfriend, though her DNA was not found on the knife or the crime scene.
His execution was stayed by the Missouri Supreme Court in 2015, and then-state Gov. Eric Greitens did the same in 2017 after male DNA was found on the knife that did not match Williams.
This year, local prosecutors began proceedings to overturn his conviction. However, on Monday, the state Supreme Court ruled unanimously that it would not stop Williams’ execution.
The death penalty has been abolished in 23 US states, while it has been moratoriumed in six others – Arizona, California, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Tennessee.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
