BACKGROUND: "A judge has set August 21 for a hearing to determine whether Marcellus Williams is innocent of the murder that landed him on death row. What's wrong in this picture? Marcellus, who has been shown to be cleared by new DNA evidence which shows someone else was the killer, is scheduled to die just little over a month later, as Associated Press (Reporter Jim Salter) reports…"Williams, 55, was convicted of first-degree murder in the 1998 stabbing death of Lisha Gayle during a robbery of her suburban St. Louis home. He was hours away from execution in August 2017 when he was given a reprieve after testing unavailable at the time of the killing showed that DNA on the knife matched someone else, not Williams. Questions about DNA evidence prompted St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell to file a motion in January to vacate the murder conviction. The new hearing date is in response to Bell’s motion. Meanwhile, Williams is scheduled to be executed Sept. 24 at the state prison in Bonne Terre, Missouri. A 2021 Missouri law allows prosecuting attorneys to file a motion to vacate a conviction if they believe an inmate could be innocent or was otherwise erroneously convicted."
PHOTO CAPTION: “The Missouri Supreme Court on Friday, July 12, 2024, ruled that execution plans for Marcellus Williams will move forward, even as the local prosecutor works to overturn Williams' 1998 murder conviction.
GIST: "The Missouri Supreme Court on Friday ruled that execution plans for Marcellus Williams will move forward, even as a prosecutor works to overturn his 1998 murder conviction.
Judges on Friday decided against halting Williams’ execution despite a St. Louis County court hearing set for Aug. 21 to determine whether he is innocent.
Williams was convicted of first-degree murder in the 1998 death of Lisha Gayle during a robbery of her suburban St. Louis home.
St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell filed a motion in January to vacate Williams’ conviction.
Bell cited new DNA evidence and said he believed Williams was not involved in Gayle’s death.
A 2021 Missouri law allows prosecuting attorneys to file a motion to vacate a conviction if they believe the inmate could be innocent or was otherwise erroneously convicted.
The filing prompts a hearing before a judge.
In the meantime, Williams had asked the Supreme Court to stay his execution pending the outcome of the August hearing. He faces execution Sept. 24.
Judges ruled that they do not have the procedural authority to withdraw the execution order at this time.
Williams' attorney Tricia Bushnell in a statement said she's “confident that any court, when presented with all the evidence—including the DNA evidence—will come to the same conclusion as St. Louis County Prosecutor Wesley Bell: that Marcellus Williams is innocent and his conviction must be overturned.”
"There is still time to right this wrong," she said. "No one wants to see Missouri execute an innocent man.”
Bell said in a statement that his office is focused on the upcoming innocence hearing.
“While of course we would prefer that this motion before the Missouri Supreme Court had prevailed and there were no longer an execution date looming for Marcellus Williams, our focus is on the motion we filed before the 21st Judicial Circuit and the effort to have our concerns about the conviction of Mr. Williams heard in court,” Bell said.
A spokeswoman for the Missouri Attorney General's Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press on Friday.”
The entire story can be read at:
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog.
SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL:
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/4704913685758792985
———————————————————————————————
FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
—————————————————————————————————
FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
