After more than two decades in prison, Marcellus Williams was executed in the US state of Missouri on Tuesday night.
Williams has been sentenced to death for the 1998 murder of Felicia Gayle in a St. Louis suburb, but has maintained his innocence until the end, and many people have protested his death sentence.
The attorney representing Williams argued that there was racial bias in the selection of the jury and that DNA evidence in the case was mishandled.
Williams was denied a last-minute pardon by the U.S. Supreme Court after the Missouri Supreme Court and the state’s governor rejected a request for clemency earlier this week.
In an unusual manner, the naming of the three liberal justices of the United States Supreme Court, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson, has become controversial.
They did not give a reason why this was done.
Missouri Department of Corrections Communications Director Karen Pojaman said there were no witnesses on behalf of Gayle’s family, CBS reported.
Judge Williams’ son and two of his attorneys were present.
At trial, prosecutors said Williams broke into Ms. Gayle’s home in August 1998 and stabbed her 43 times with a large butcher knife before stealing her purse and her husband’s laptop.
Mrs. Gayle was a social worker in St. Louis and a former reporter.
Williams’ attorneys said there were concerns about the handling of the case and that black jurors were wrongly excluded from the trial.
He also raised questions about the lack of forensic evidence linking Williams to the crime scene and the mishandling of the murder weapon by DNA evidence.
Updated
28 people died in a traffic accident in Kindo Didaye District, Patata Kebele
28 people died in an accident when a public transport bus that was traveling from Walayta zone to Dauro zone hit Patata Kebele in Kindo Didaye district.
It was reported that many people lost their lives in the shocking and horrible accident that happened today, and it was pointed out that the survivors are being treated at the Halal first level hospital.
It has been reported that 28 people have died and 19 people have been injured in the accident. The area where the accident happened is steep and has a flowing river, so the search is on.
It has been stated that the district government will continue to provide necessary support while expressing its deepest condolences to those who lost their lives in the accident.