The state of Missouri has executed Marcellus “Khalifah” Williams. Williams, a Black Muslim man, was convicted of killing a white woman, Felicia Gayle. He was convicted based on the testimony of two eyewitnesses in 2001. Lawyers argued that there was no forensic evidence connecting Williams to the crime scene, and that there was no DNA evidence. Recent DNA testing has shown that the DNA on the knife that was recovered in the crime scene belonged to various members of the prosecturos’ office, who handled the evidence without gloves. The two eyewitnesses who testified against Williams included his then-girlfriend and Henry Cole, who was Williams’ cellmate in 1999 while Williams was jailed for an armed robbery of a donut shop. The eyewitnesses testified due to a $10,000 reward that was being offered at the time.
Williams was executed Tuesday evening by lethal injection after the US Supreme Court denied a stay, despite prosecutors believing in his innocence. Members of Gayle’s family did not want Williams to be killed by the state (they oppose the death penalty), members of the jury expressed second thoughts about the verdict, and the office that prosecuted Williams – the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, led the charge to free him from prison.
Williams maintained his innocence until the end of his life. While imprisoned, he was an imam and a poet. His final statement was “All praise be to Allah in every situation!!!”
He wrote a poem for the children of Palestine:
despite the actions of the few,
and excessive retaliation,
drones,
planes,
bombs,
tanks,
rubble,
buildings demolished,
vanished houses and neighborhoods,
hospitals targeted,
U.N. shelters disrespected,
murder,
death,
deliberate killing of noncombatants,
babies buried alive,
amputations,
hunger and political starvation,
lack of or no water,
strategic sanitation,
daily terror,
and terrorized daily,
military maneuvering,
moving here and there,
to return back again to nowhere,
trauma with all its manifestations,
international parleys and hesitation,
defiance to the realization of two nations,
global aid thwarted,
global amnesia,
siblings and relatives gone forever,
parental worries –
in the face of apex arrogance
and ethnic cleansing by any definition…
still your laughter can be heard
and somehow you are able to smile
O resilient Children of Palestine!
Despite the claims of innocence, despite the prosecutors’ charge to free him, and despite the hoards of people who rallied to stop the execution, the state of Missouri killed a man. Prison reform is necessary, and capital punishment must be examined. In a system that repeatedly targets Black men, this is a modern-day lynching.
