Two men were executed in the U.S. on Tuesday, including Marcellus Williams, a Black man convicted of a 1998 murder who had maintained his innocence, drawing support from civil rights groups. Williams, aged 55, was sentenced to death for the killing of Felicia Gayle, a former newspaper reporter in Missouri, and was pronounced dead at 6:10 pm local time.
Travis Mullis, 38, was also executed in Texas for killing his three-month-old son, Alijah Mullis, in 2008. In his final statement, Mullis expressed regret and apologized to the mother and family of his son.
Both executions were carried out by lethal injection, bringing the total number of executions in the U.S. this year to 16.
Williams’ case had garnered significant attention from civil rights groups, including the NAACP, which urged Missouri Governor Michael Parson to halt the execution. However, Parson allowed it to proceed, stating that no jury or court had found merit in Williams’ innocence claims. The U.S. Supreme Court also denied a last-minute request to stop the execution.
British billionaire Richard Branson criticized the execution, calling it a “devastating miscarriage of justice.” Williams’ case was controversial, as male DNA found on the murder weapon did not match his, leading to stays of execution in 2015 and 2017. Despite this, Williams was convicted based on testimonies from a former jailmate and an ex-girlfriend, though no DNA evidence linked him to the crime scene.
Felicia Gayle was stabbed 43 times in her St. Louis home during what appeared to be a burglary. Williams, with prior convictions for burglary and robbery, had consistently claimed innocence