The state of Missouri moved to execute Marcellus Williams, a death row inmate who maintained his innocence for decades.
On Tuesday (September 24), Williams died by lethal injection at the Missouri state prison in Bonne Terre shortly after 6 p.m., per Newsweek.
Williams was convicted in 2001 of killing former newspaper reporter Felicia Gayle, who was found stabbed to death in her home in 1998. The St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney's Office argued Williams' execution should be halted due to potential racial bias in jury selection for his 2001 trial and DNA evidence that didn't link Williams to the murder.
However, Missouri Governor Mike Parson, Missouri's Supreme Court, and the U.S. Supreme Court rejected efforts and calls to grant Williams clemency and halt his execution.
"Even for those who disagree on the death penalty, when there is a shadow of a doubt of any defendant's guilt, the irreversible punishment of execution should not be an option," St. Louis Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell said in a statement.
Williams' final statement was handwritten in the days before his scheduled execution.
"All Praise Be to Allah in Every Situation!!!" Williams' final words read.
According to officials, Williams consumed his last meal of chicken wings and tater tots shortly before 11 a.m. on Tuesday. He was visited in his final hours by Imam Jalahii Kacem, who accompanied him to the execution room.
Shortly before his death, Williams' attorney, Tricia Rojo Bushnell, said that Missouri was executing an innocent man.
"That is not justice," Bushnell said. "And we must all question any system that would allow this to occur. The execution of an innocent person is the most extreme manifestation of Missouri's obsession with 'finality' over truth, justice, and humanity, at any cost."
"Tonight, we all bear witness to Missouri's grotesque exercise of state power," she added. "Let it not be in vain. This should never happen, and we must not let it continue."
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