Entries tagged with “Wesley Bell”

Arbitrariness

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Sentencing Alternatives

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Oct 04, 2024

A Chance at Life, Withdrawn: When Politics Interferes with Plea Deals

American pros­e­cu­tors have immense pow­er and rel­a­tive­ly unchecked dis­cre­tion in cap­i­tal cas­es. But in sev­er­al recent cas­es, death-sen­tenced pris­on­ers reached agree­ments with pros­e­cu­tors that would have saved them from exe­cu­tion, only to learn that anoth­er offi­cial had inter­fered to block the agree­ment. Critics have argued that these deci­sions sow pub­lic dis­trust in the legal process and raise con­cerns that gov­ern­ment offi­cials may be exploit­ing death penal­ty cas­es for political…

Innocence

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Sep 24, 2024

Missouri Supreme Court and Governor Reject Innocence Claims and Refuse to Pause Execution for Marcellus Williams

On September 23, 2024, the Missouri Supreme Court heard oral argu­ments on the joint motion by Marcellus Williams’ legal team and St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney (PA) Wesley Bell to over­turn a low­er court’s deci­sion reject­ing Mr. Williams’ appeal. Later the same day, the state supreme court unan­i­mous­ly denied the motion, stat­ing that there was ​“no cred­i­ble evi­dence of actu­al inno­cence or any show­ing of a con­sti­tu­tion­al error under­min­ing con­fi­dence in the orig­i­nal judg­ment.” Also the same…

Policy Issues

Innocence

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Sep 13, 2024

Ignoring Credible Innocence Claims, St. Louis County Circuit Court Denies Prosecutor’s Motion to Vacate Marcellus Williams’ Conviction and Death Sentence

On September 12, 2024, the Missouri Circuit Court for St. Louis County denied Prosecuting Attorney (PA) Wesley Bell’s motion to vacate Marcellus Williams’ con­vic­tion and death sen­tence for the 1998 mur­der of Felicia Gayle. Judge Bruce F. Hilton denied PA Bell’s motion, writ­ing that ​“there is no basis for a court to find that [Mr.] Williams is inno­cent, and no court has made such a find­ing.” Judge Hilton added that the court was not pre­sent­ed with evi­dence show­ing that the previous…

Policy Issues

Innocence

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Sep 06, 2024

St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Concedes Constitutional Errors in Marcellus Williams’ Conviction and Death Sentence, Urges the Court to Vacate His Conviction

On August 28, 2024, a St. Louis County Circuit Court judge held an evi­den­tiary hear­ing for Marcellus Williams (pic­tured), who has long main­tained his inno­cence in the 1998 mur­der of Felicia Gayle. At this hear­ing, the office of St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney (PA) Wesley Bell con­ced­ed that the pri­or admin­is­tra­tion, under Prosecuting Attorney Bob McCullogh, com­mit­ted con­sti­tu­tion­al errors con­tribut­ing to Mr. Williams’ unre­li­able con­vic­tion and death sen­tence. These errors include the…

Policy Issues

Innocence

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Aug 22, 2024

Missouri Supreme Court Blocks Marcellus Williams from Entering Plea to Avoid Execution After State Reveals Mishandled Evidence

On August 21, 2024, Marcellus Williams (pic­tured), who is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed on September 24, 2024, agreed to enter an Alford plea in exchange for a sen­tence of life with­out parole. This agree­ment would have ensured that Mr. Williams, who has always main­tained his inno­cence in the 1998 mur­der of Felicia Gayle, would not be exe­cut­ed. But hours after Judge Bruce F. Hilton accept­ed the plea agree­ment, Attorney General Andrew Bailey asked the Missouri Supreme Court to block the deal,…

Policy Issues

Innocence

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Aug 13, 2024

New Analysis: Innocent Death-Sentenced Prisoners Wait Longer than Ever for Exoneration

On July 1, after wait­ing 41 years for his name to be cleared, Larry Roberts became the 200th per­son exon­er­at­ed from death row. A new Death Penalty Information Center analy­sis finds that Mr. Roberts’ expe­ri­ence illus­trates a trou­bling trend: for inno­cent death-sen­tenced pris­on­ers, the length of time between wrong­ful con­vic­tion and exon­er­a­tion is increas­ing. In the past twen­ty years, the aver­age length of time before exon­er­a­tion has rough­ly tripled, and 2024 has the high­est-ever aver­age wait…

Policy Issues

Innocence

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Aug 01, 2024

Missouri Supreme Court Blocks Attorney General’s Efforts to Prevent Innocence Hearing for Marcellus Williams

On July 26, 2024, the Missouri Supreme Court denied Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s request to block an evi­den­tiary hear­ing sched­uled for August 21st, 2024, where the St. Louis County Circuit Court is set to hear evi­dence of Marcellus Williams’ (pic­tured) inno­cence. The cir­cuit court set the August 21st hear­ing in response to a motion to vacate Mr. Williams’ con­vic­tion and death sen­tence filed by Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell in January 2024. In his motion, DA Bell wrote that the…

Policy Issues

Innocence

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Jun 10, 2024

Missouri Supreme Court Sets Execution Date for Marcellus Williams Despite County Prosecutor’s Pending Motion for Innocence Hearing

On June 4, 2024, the Missouri Supreme Court set a September 24, 2024, exe­cu­tion date for death-sen­tenced pris­on­er Marcellus Williams (pic­tured), despite seri­ous doubts that he was not involved in the mur­der for which he is incar­cer­at­ed. The announce­ment came just hours after the state Supreme Court ruled that Governor Mike Parson did not vio­late any rules when he dis­solved a board of inquiry estab­lished in June 2023 by his pre­de­ces­sor, Eric Greitens, to inves­ti­gate Mr. William’s claim of…

Policy Issues

Deterrence

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Innocence

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Race

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Victims' Families

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Jan 07, 2021

St. Louis County Prosecutor: Death Penalty is ​‘Ineffective, Racially Biased, Hypocritical and Inhumane’

Calling the death penal­ty ​“inef­fec­tive, racial­ly based, hyp­o­crit­i­cal and inhu­mane,” St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell (pic­tured) has renewed his pledge to nev­er autho­rize a cap­i­tal pros­e­cu­tion. In a December 23, 2020 op-ed in the St. Louis American, Bell urged ​“all pros­e­cu­tors in Missouri who cur­rent­ly con­sid­er the death penal­ty an option to…