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The prosecutor's office that put him on death row asked the court to stop the execution. The victim's own family asked the court to stop the execution. Missouri executed Marcellus Williams anyway. Felicia Gayle, a former newspaper reporter, was killed in her home in University City, Missouri, in 1998. Marcellus Williams was convicted in 2001 and sentenced to death. The case against him rested substantially on two witnesses — a cellmate and a former partner — both of whom stood to gain, including from reward money. No physical evidence tied him to the house. Hair and fingerprints recovered there did not match him. The murder weapon was a kitchen knife left at the scene. DNA testing conducted years later found male DNA on the handle that was not his. It later emerged that the knife had been handled by members of the prosecution team without gloves before trial — which contaminated the evidence and meant the one test that might have settled it could no longer settle anything. The St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney's office — the office that had obtained the conviction — moved to vacate it. The family of Felicia Gayle opposed the execution. They said they did not want it carried out in their name. The Missouri Attorney General fought to proceed. The Governor declined clemency. The Supreme Court declined to intervene. Marcellus Williams was executed on 24 September 2024. He was fifty-five. Count who was asking for it to stop. The prosecutors. The victim's family. Jurors from his own trial, who said afterwards they would have voted differently. And the state did it anyway. Everything else we post about the death penalty is an argument. This one is not an argument. It is a receipt. When even the people closest to the case ask the state to stop, and the execution happens anyway, what does justice mean? Read our book and join us to confront these cases that raise questions we cannot afford to ignore savvypurchase.samcart.com/pr…