(RNS) — Marcellus “Khaliifah” Williams, an imam at Missouri’s Potosi Correctional Middle, is scheduled to be executed on Tuesday (Sept. 24), at the same time as his legal professionals and advocates proceed to argue his trial was plagued with racial bias and procedural errors.
The Missouri Supreme Court docket met Monday to debate the arguments in Williams’ case, a day earlier than his scheduled execution.
Each the Innocence Undertaking and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) have been urging the general public to contact Governor Parson’s workplace in Missouri to remain the execution.
“He’s the lead Muslim non secular chief for Muslims in his jail. And he’s by all studies, , a respectful and respectable man who has made essentially the most of his horrible state of affairs and doesn’t, shouldn’t be dying for against the law he didn’t commit,” mentioned Edward Mitchell, nationwide deputy director of CAIR.
An interfaith letter, signed by 69 Muslim, Christian and Jewish religion leaders, urged Governor Parson to grant Williams clemency.
“As an imam, Marcellus serves not solely his flock, a gaggle of males, lots of whom have been deserted by society and in determined want of steering and energy, however the establishment as properly — by offering an important community of assist for the prisoners,” reads the letter.
Williams, 55, transformed to Islam in the course of the 24 years he has spent on Missouri’s dying row, after being convicted of the homicide of Felicia Gayle, a former reporter discovered stabbed in her dwelling in 1998. He has maintained his innocence by means of a number of failed appeals and within the face of an earlier, stayed execution date.
In 2017, then-Governor Eric Greitens blocked Williams’ execution date when proof of an unknown particular person’s DNA was discovered on the homicide weapon and there was no hint of Williams’ DNA. Greitens appointed a board of inquiry to evaluation proof for the case. In June 2023, present Governor Michael Lynn Parson dissolved the board with out permitting them to conclude, and Legal professional Common Andrew Bailey appointed a brand new execution date.
Earlier this yr, Democratic St. Louis County Prosecuting Legal professional Wesley Bell filed a movement to overturn Williams’ conviction primarily based on new DNA proof that he argued on the time would exonerate Williams. Nevertheless, the DNA testing was discovered to be spoiled on account of mishandling of the weapon by the prosecution.
Unable to make use of the DNA proof, advocates for Williams, together with the Midwest Innocence Undertaking, negotiated a plea cope with the prosecutor, by which Williams wouldn’t admit guilt however would settle for a sentence of life with out parole. Choose Bruce Hilton agreed to the deal, as did the sufferer’s household, however Bailey fought the settlement, and the Missouri Supreme Court docket overturned it.
In a last try to remain the execution, Williams’ authorized workforce argued Monday that the jury choice course of was racially biased, pointing to the 11 white folks chosen for the jury and the exclusion of no less than one potential juror primarily based on race.
“On the evidentiary listening to on August 28, the prosecutor testified that his elimination of no less than one Black potential juror at Mr. Williams’ trial was primarily based ‘partly’ on the truth that he was Black,” based on the assertion made by the Innocence Undertaking.
Tricia Rojo Bushnell, an lawyer representing Williams, corroborated that report, telling RNS on Monday that the prosecutor had, throughout testimony, “confessed that no less than one juror he struck, partly due to his race, as a result of he was additionally a younger Black man that seemed just like the defendant.”
She additionally pointed to using incentivized testimonies in Williams’ authentic trial, noting each witnesses who incriminated Williams had been convicted of felonies and searching for a reward. As a result of significance of the prosecutor conceding error and the sufferer’s household supporting a sentence of life with out parole, Bushnell believes Williams shouldn’t be executed.
“The query is what are we pursuing? What’s the Legal professional Common pursuing? As a result of the neighborhood has made clear by means of their duly elected prosecutor, as a result of the household has made clear, this isn’t what everybody needs. Executing Marcel Williams will not be justice,” mentioned Bushnell.
Williams can be the third particular person executed in Missouri this yr and the fifteenth nationwide.
Greater than 107,000 folks have contacted Governor Parson by means of calls, emails and tweets, and greater than 600,000 folks have signed the Innocence Undertaking’s petition to cease Williams’ execution, based on the Innocence Undertaking’s press workplace.
“We’ve had over 30,000 folks signal our petition and make contact with the governor of Missouri since Friday, and that’s outstanding. We have now not often seen petition responses that giant in such a brief period of time. So, that is clearly getting the eye of the American public, particularly the American Muslim neighborhood,” mentioned Mitchell.
