‘Rest In Power’: Missouri executes Marcellus Williams despite prosecutors and the victim’s family asking that he be spared

CNN& —& Marcellus Williams, whose murder conviction was questioned by a prosecutor, died by lethal injection Tuesday evening in Missouri after the US Supreme Court denied a stay. The 55-year-old was put to death around 6 p.m. CT at the state prison in Bonne Terre. Williams’ attorneys had filed a flurry of appeal efforts based on what they described as new evidence – including alleged bias in jury selection and contamination of the murder weapon prior to trial. The victim’s family had asked the inmate be spared death. The US Supreme Court’s action came a day after Missouri’s supreme court and governor refused to grant a stay of execution. The high court offered no explanation for its decision, which is common for cases on its emergency docket. There were no noted dissents in two of Williiams’ appeals. In a third, Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson said they would have granted the request to pause the execution. Williams was convicted in 2001 of killing Felicia Gayle, a former newspaper reporter found stabbed to death in her home in 1998. “We hope this gives finality to a case that’s languished for decades, re-victimizing Ms. Gayle’s family for decades,”...