Missouri death row inmate Marcellus Williams agreed to a no contest plea on Wednesday, opting for a life sentence without parole and dropping his not guilty plea.
The plea deal comes after nearly two decades of legal battle over the 1998 murder of Lisha Gayle, a social worker and former journalist in suburban St. Louis. Prosecutors in court said Williams broke into Gayle’s home on August 11, 1998, found a large butcher knife and stabbed her 43 times. Her husband’s wallet and laptop were also stolen.
On Wednesday, Williams entered an Alford plea—a legal step that allows him to assert his innocence while acknowledging that prosecutors have enough evidence to convict him.
Williams’ decision, part of a deal with St. Louis County prosecutors, means that he avoids the execution, which is scheduled for September 24, will be resentenced there as an agreement to call for life in prison without parole. Williams has also agreed not to appeal.
“Marcellus Williams is an innocent man, and nothing in today’s plea agreement changes that fact,” Williams’ attorney, Tricia Bushnell, said in a statement, adding that Gayle’s family supports waiving the death penalty, and that the plea “makes finality” for the family, the Associated Press reported.
The plea deal comes as Louis County Circuit Judge Bruce Hinton is expected to oversee a hearing requested by Prosecutor Wesley Bell that was originally set to reconsider Williams’ conviction, based on new DNA evidence that was not available during the trial, the AP reported.
Newsweek Bell’s office has been reached by email for comment.
The evidence, which emerged years after it was believed, showed that DNA found on the murder weapon did not belong to Williams, casting significant doubt on his guilt. However, further DNA testing revealed contamination of evidence due to the handling of weapons by former assistant prosecutors and investigators. Contaminated evidence complicates efforts and makes it impossible to show that someone else was the killer.
“The murder weapon was handled without proper procedures in place,” Matthew Jacober, attorney for St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office said, according to AP.
The mishandling occurred several years before Bell took office.
Missouri Department of Corrections / AP
However, according to AP, the Missouri Attorney General’s Office, led by Republican Andrew Bailey, strongly opposes the new consent sentence and has vowed to appeal to the Missouri Supreme Court in an effort to proceed with the execution.
Bailey said the circuit court had no authority to overrule the state Supreme Court setting the execution date.
“Throughout the entire legal game, the defense created a false narrative of innocence in order to remove convicted murderers from death row and fulfill their political goals,” Bailey said in a statement. “Due to the failure of the defense to do due diligence by examining the evidence that was supposed to prove their intent, the victims were forced to relive the terrible loss of the past six years.”
The plea deal comes as the case against Williams continues to be controversial because Williams, who is black, was originally convicted by a jury made up of 11 white jurors and one black juror. The case drew attention to issues of racial bias and the reliability of eyewitness testimony, as key witnesses against him were both indicted.
It also became more controversial after Governor Eric Greitens halted Williams’ execution in 2017, following new DNA evidence. The ruling prompted further examination of Williams’ case under a Missouri law that allows prosecutors to challenge convictions that may have been wrongful.
“This unprecedented evidence, when paired with other relative insufficiency, credible evidence supporting his guilt, as well as additional considerations of ineffective assistance of counsel and racial discrimination in jury selection, casts undeniable doubt on the conviction and sentence Mr. Williams.”, said Bell’s motion.
According to the AP, Williams’ case is also the first to challenge the death penalty under Missouri’s new 2021 law, which has led to the acquittal of several other convicted criminals.
