OPINION: Evidence doesn’t matter to Missouri’s government

This wasn’t what I planned to write about this week, but here we are. Tuesday, Sept. 24, Marcellus Williams was murdered by the state of Missouri. We published the Associated Press’ story on the incident in our Sept. 26 online newspaper. Marcellus had been on death row for 23 years for the 1998 murder of Lisha Gayle in St. Louis.

While I’m someone who is already against the death penalty, the situation with Marcellus is much more than that. Even his own prosecutors and the family of the victim asked the court to stop his execution, yet the Missouri governor and supreme court continued with killing him. Let’s start from the beginning.

Lisha was stabbed to death during a robbery of her St. Louis home. Two people claim to have witnessed Marcellus confess to the murder. Both felons, the defense has long said the two were after the reward money. One witness was awarded $5,000, while the other supposedly never collected the money. To lawyers and in court, Marcellus had professed his innocence since the beginning.

In 2001, Marcellus was convicted and sentenced to death. In 2017, on the eve of his execution, then Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens stopped the execution, sharing that newer DNA testing technology did not find Marcellus’ DNA on the murder weapon. He then put together a board to look into the case again. However, Greitens and his inquiry were booted from the capital, with now Missouri Gov. Mike Parsons stopping the inquiry before the board could make any conclusions about the case.

Despite no physical evidence connecting Marcellus to the crime and possible racial bias (six of seven black jurors were struck from serving, with one prosecutor sharing it was because they looked too much like Marcellus), Marcellus was executed by lethal injection. His final meal was chicken wings and tater tots and final statement “All Praise Be To Allah In Every Situation!!!” Marcellus was accompanied by his imam (Islamic prayer leader) Jalahii Kacem during his death.

I’ve always been against the death sentence, but my eyes were truly opened when I watched the movie “Just Mercy.” Based on a true story, the movie follows a young lawyer (Michael B. Jordan) as he works with numerous death row inmates in the South to get their sentences overturned. The men he worked with were innocent, or had extenuating circumstances, yet most were still murdered by the government. I was a freshman in college when I saw this film, and immediately did more research.

While many on death row are indeed guilty, too many are found to be innocent. Depending on which research you follow, the number could be anywhere from 4.1% up to 11.1% that are killed and later exonerated.

According to research by the Death Penalty Information Center, misconduct was a factor in more than three-quarters of cases in which Black defendants were exonerated (78.8%), more than two-thirds of cases involving Latinx defendants (68.8%) and 58.2% of cases with white defendants. There is an obvious case of race playing a huge factor in being wrongly accused, as was the situation with Marcellus.

Even if a person is 100% guilty, should they get the death sentence if the victim’s family and the prosecutors are against it? What is the point of the death sentence? If it’s to punish the convict, isn’t death cutting their suffering short? If it’s to bring retribution for the victim and their family, why continue if the family is against it? If it’s to keep the world safe, why not leave them in prison with a life sentence? Even if Marcellus was guilty, which based on evidence it appears he was not, why go through with the execution?

The whole situation is a misuse of power and has brought international attention to the Missouri state government. Marcellus isn’t the first to be wrongly executed, and he won’t be the last. We as a nation can do so much better.