On Tuesday (Sept. 24), Missouri executed Marcellus Williams, a 55-year-old Black man who maintained his innocence in the stabbing death of Felicia Gayle. The execution, which CBS News confirmed was carried out by lethal injection, proceeded despite numerous requests for clemency. The publication further stated that Williams' last statement was, "All praise be to Allah in every situation!"

St. Louis County Prosecutor Wesley Bell, who fought to get the execution overturned, provided a statement on social media. "Marcellus Williams should be alive today. There were multiple points in the timeline that decisions could have been made that would have spared him the death penalty," he wrote. "If there is even the shadow of a doubt of innocence, the death penalty should never be an option. This outcome did not serve the interests of justice."

As reported by both CBS News and USA Today, Gayle, a 42-year-old woman, was murdered during a daytime burglary at her home back in August 1998. The assailant stabbed her multiple times with a butcher's knife and some items were stolen from the house. Despite abundant forensic evidence at the crime scene, the case remained unsolved until Gayle's family offered a $10,000 reward for information.

Two individuals, Henry Cole and Lara Asaro, implicated Williams in the murder. Cole claimed Williams confessed to him in jail, while Asaro, a sex worker and Williams' girlfriend, said she found evidence from the crime scene in Williams' car and that he admitted the crime to her. Both Cole and Asaro struggled with drug addiction during that time and have since passed. Defense attorneys questioned the credibility of their testimonies and suggested that they may have been motivated by personal gain. Both of their accounts were also said to have been inconsistent.

Williams, who had an extensive criminal record, was convicted of Gayle's murder in 2001. The judge had refused to allow testing of some DNA evidence found at the scene. The Innocence Project contested the case and disputed some of the evidence and testimonies used in the conviction. The nonprofit also revealed that Gayle’s family opposed Williams’ eventual fate and preferred life without parole – an option that was agreed to by the judge yet subsequently blocked by the state’s supreme court. "Tonight, Missouri executed an innocent man. Our hearts are with Marcellus and his loved ones," read the organization's Instagram post.