Missouri Executes Marcellus Williams Amid DNA Evidence Controversy

Marcellus Williams, a 55-year-old death row prisoner in Missouri, was put to death by lethal injection on Tuesday for the 1998 slaying of Lisha Gayle, an ex-journalist who was discovered viciously stabbed in her St. Louis suburban residence.

Williams' attorney confirmed to ABC News that the execution took place after 6:00 p.m. CDT at a state correctional facility in Bonne Terre, Francois County, roughly 60 miles southwest of St. Louis.

Missouri executes man for 1998 killing of a woman despite her family’s calls to spare his life

The capital case garnered nationwide interest as Williams asserted his innocence, the victim's relatives opposed the execution, and his legal team filed motions for appeals at every judicial level.

Following the execution, Wesley Bell, lead prosecutor for St. Louis County, issued a statement saying, "Marcellus Williams should not have been executed today. There were numerous junctures in the process where decisions could have been made to spare him from capital punishment. When there exists even a faint possibility of innocence, the death penalty should never be considered. This outcome failed to serve justice."

The United States Supreme Court rejected two separate pleas to save Williams' life on Tuesday, just an hour before his scheduled execution, despite dissent from Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor.

After SCOTUS' ruling, Williams' lawyer Tricia Rojo Bushnell released a statement declaring, "Tonight, Missouri will end the life of an innocent man Marcellus "Khaliifah" Williams."

"While today is bleak, we must honor Khaliifah by striving for a better future. We are grateful to the St. Louis Prosecuting Attorney for his dedication to truth and justice and all his efforts to prevent this unthinkable injustice. And for the countless individuals who signed petitions, made phone calls, and shared Khaliifah's story," Bushnell added.

On Monday, Missouri Governor Mike Parson and the state's Supreme Court declined a request to halt the execution.

In a statement to ABC News, Parson asserted, "No jury or court, including at the trial, appellate, and Supreme Court levels, has ever found merit in Mr. Williams' claims of innocence."

"Ultimately, his guilty verdict and death sentence were upheld. Nothing in the actual facts of this case has convinced me of Mr. Williams' innocence," Parson further stated.

Williams was indicted for first-degree murder in 1999 for Gayle's killing, a social worker and former St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter. He was convicted in 2001.

Prosecutors in Williams' initial trial claimed he broke into Gayle's home in August 1998 and stabbed her 43 times with a large kitchen knife, according to court records. Her purse and her husband's laptop were taken after the attack.

The kitchen knife used in the murder was left embedded in Gayle's body, court documents show. Blood, hair, fingerprints and shoe prints believed to belong to the perpetrator were discovered around the residence.

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Williams' defense argued that his DNA was never found on the murder weapon and two unidentified DNA sources would lead investigators to the real killer.

In DNA evidence uncovered in August, it was revealed that the former prosecutor and investigator who handled the original trial failed to use gloves when handling the murder weapon, leaving their DNA on the knife, thus explaining the sources of the unidentified DNA, which did not belong to an unknown assailant.

In his Monday statement, Parson accused Williams' attorneys of attempting to "obscure the facts about DNA evidence" with claims previously dismissed by the courts.

"Nothing in the actual facts of this case has convinced me of Mr. Williams' innocence," Parson reiterated.

Williams' execution marks the third in Missouri this year and the 100th since the state reinstated capital punishment in 1989.