When the state of Missouri put Marcellus Williams to death on Tuesday night, it did so over the strenuous objections of the same prosecutor’s office that tried him for the 1998 murder of former St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter Lisha Gayle.
St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell, along with Williams’ legal team, had moved, unsuccessfully, to have the 55-year-old’s conviction vacated based on new information they said raised questions about his identification as Gayle’s killer. At 6:01 p.m. local time, Williams was injected with a lethal dose of pentobarbital while his son, an up-and-coming prizefighter named Marcellus Jr., watched from the witness gallery. Nine minutes later, Williams was pronounced dead.
