Photo cour­tesy of Marcellus Williams’ legal team.

At 7:18pm ET, CNN report­ed that the state of Missouri exe­cut­ed Marcellus Williams by lethal injection.

Justices Sotomayor, Jackson, and Kagan would have stayed the execution. 

Attorney Statement on the Pending Execution of Marcellus Williams

“Tonight, Missouri will exe­cute an inno­cent man, Marcellus ​“Khaliifah” Williams. The victim’s fam­i­ly oppos­es his exe­cu­tion. Jurors, who orig­i­nal­ly sen­tenced him to death, now oppose his exe­cu­tion. The prosecutor’s office that con­vict­ed and sen­tenced him to death has now admit­ted they were wrong and zeal­ous­ly fought to undo the con­vic­tion and save Mr. Williams’ life. More than one mil­lion con­cerned cit­i­zens and faith lead­ers implored Governor Parson to com­mute Marcellus’s death sen­tence. Missouri will kill him anyway.

That is not jus­tice. 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.

Khaliifah is a kind and thought­ful man, who spent his last years sup­port­ing those around him in his role as Imam. We will remem­ber him for his deeply evoca­tive poet­ry and his love for and ser­vice to his fam­i­ly and his com­mu­ni­ty. While he yearned to return home, he is a thought­ful man who has worked hard to move beyond the anger, frus­tra­tion, and fear of wrong­ful exe­cu­tion, chan­nel­ing his ener­gy into his faith and find­ing mean­ing and con­nec­tion through Islam. The world will be a worse place without him.

As dark as today is, we owe it to Khaliifah to build a brighter future. We are thank­ful to the St. Louis Prosecuting Attorney, for his com­mit­ment to truth and jus­tice and all he did to try to pre­vent this unspeak­able wrong. And for the mil­lions of peo­ple who signed peti­tions, made calls, and shared Khaliifah’s story. 

Tonight, we all bear wit­ness to Missouri’s grotesque exer­cise of state pow­er. Let it not be in vain. This should nev­er hap­pen, and we must not let it continue.”

· Tricia Rojo Bushnell

· September 24, 2024