Just hours before he is scheduled to die by lethal injection, Missouri Governor Eric Greitens intervenes and halts convicted killer Marcellus Williams execution. The intervention comes after months of activism by groups like Missourians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty and other groups that decided to rally for Marcellus when DNA evidence of an unknown man on the murder weapon brought questions of his innocence.
<img src="https://media.8ch.net/file_store/093e041959b15b766ec8805cb3325a98aa0cd6ff67ececeb87028ac7cea77bd7.jpg" style="max-height:640px;max-width:360px;">
<span style="margin-top:15px;rgba(42,51,6,0.7);font-size:12px;">Credit: KWCH12</span>
Marcellus was originally sentenced to death for the stabbing that left Lisha Gayle, a former reporter who left journalism for social work, dead in 1998. Gayle apparently came home one day to find someone robbing her home in St. Louis, but when the knife was tested last December using new DNA technology, it was an unknown man's DNA discovered and not William's. His attorney's argued that the testing done in December on the knife used techniques that were not available at the time of the original trial and should be enough to get a stay of execution and a new trial for the man. His attorney's must be hopeful at this point that there is a chance that Marcellus could be proven innocent and walk free.
He was originally sentenced to death upon the world of two key witnesses alone. Something we know today is highly inaccurate, biased and often smeared with ulterior motives from witnesses. Some facts about DNA evidence, 1989 the first DNA exoneration took place, 37 states have had DNA exoneration's take place and 14 years is the average length of time served by exonerees.
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https://www.innocenceproject.org/dna-exonerations-in-the-united-states/
