The life of Missouri Marcellus Williams hangs in the balance as testimony begins Wednesday in a hearing before St. Louis County Circuit Judge Bruce Hilton. The case revolves around a motion filed by Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell to overturn Williams' 1998 .
With his for September 24, time is running out and neither Missouri Gov. Mike Parson nor Attorney General Andrew Bailey has indicated any intention to delay the process. Williams, now 55, was of Lisha Gayle.
He was just hours away from execution in August 2017 when then-Gov. Eric Greitens, a Republican, granted a stay after unavailable at the time of the killing showed that DNA on the knife matched someone else, not Williams. This new evidence led Bell to reevaluate the case.
"This never-before-considered evidence, when paired with the relative paucity of other, credible evidence supporting guilt, as well as additional considerations of ineffective assistance of counsel and racial discrimination in jury selection, casts inexorable doubt on Mr. Williams's conviction and sentence," states Bell's motion. Williams, who is Black, was convicted and sentenced to death by a jury consisting of 11 white people and one Black person.
Despite the new DNA claims, Bailey, a Republican, stated in a June court filing that "evidence supporting conviction at trial was overwhelming". A 2021 Missouri law has given prosecutors the power to file a motion to overturn a conviction they believe was unjust. This law has led to the exoneration of .