Missouri death row inmate agrees to new plea in deal that calls for a life sentence without parole

CLAYTON, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri death row inmate on Wednesday dropped his innocence claim and entered a new no-contest plea in an agreement that calls for a revised sentence of life in prison without parole.But the Missouri Attorney General’s Office opposes the new consent judgment and will appeal in an effort to move ahead with the scheduled Sept. 24 execution of Marcellus Williams.The complicated turn of events happened on the day that St. Louis County Circuit Judge Bruce Hinton was supposed to oversee a hearing requested by Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell aimed at vacating Williams’ first-degree murder conviction in the 1998 stabbing death of Lisha Gayle. Bell had cited DNA testing unavailable at the time of the crime that found someone else’s DNA — but not that of Williams — on the murder weapon. After a lengthy delay with lawyers meeting behind closed doors, Matthew Jacober, a special prosecutor for the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, announced that even newer DNA testing released on Monday found contamination due to handling of the weapon by a former assistant prosecutor and investigator. The contaminated evidence made it impossible to show that someone else may have been the killer.“The murder weapon...