Attorney Statement: St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Concedes Constitutional Error by Prior Administration In Marcellus Williams’ Case

Case update from Sept. 24: Missouri executed Marcellus Williams. 

(August 28, 2024) Today, the office of St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell conceded that the prior administration under Prosecuting Attorney Bob McCullogh had committed constitutional errors contributing to Marcellus Williams’ unreliable murder conviction and death sentence. These errors included mishandling a key piece of evidence that could have exonerated Mr. Williams. 

PA Bell had filed a motion to vacate Mr. Williams’ conviction in January 2024, after conducting a comprehensive review of the case, including new DNA analysis that excluded Mr. Williams as the source of male DNA on the murder weapon. Despite the fact that no reliable evidence has ever connected Mr. Williams to the 1998 murder of Felicia Gayle and that Ms. Gayle’s family has made clear they do not support his execution, Attorney General Andrew Bailey has vigorously fought to prevent the court from vacating Mr. Williams’ conviction and to execute him on September 24. 

The circuit court had set a hearing on PA Bell’s motion for August 21, but on the eve of the hearing, PA Bell discovered that the murder weapon had been mishandled by members of the trial prosecution team, whose DNA was identified on the knife. As a result of this development, the parties reached a consent decree where, in order to prevent his execution, Mr. Williams agreed to enter an Alford plea and accept a sentence of life imprisonment without possibility of parole. The victim’s family supported this resolution, which would have brought closure to the legal proceedings while ensuring Mr. Williams remains alive if new, reliable evidence of his innocence is revealed in the future. 

AG Bailey, however, opposed this agreement and filed a writ of prohibition in the Missouri Supreme Court. That court granted a preliminary writ, ordering the circuit court to proceed with a hearing on PA Bell’s motion to vacate. The circuit court held that hearing today.

In addition to acknowledging that the previous office of the St. Louis County prosecutor was responsible for mishandling the murder weapon, PA Bell also conceded error resulting from the State’s destruction of bloody fingerprints left at the crime scene, and from the trial prosecutor’s improper removal of Black prospective jurors on the basis of their race. These serious constitutional errors, PA Bell acknowledged, undermine the fairness and reliability of Mr. Williams’ conviction and death sentence and require that they be vacated.

Below is a statement from Tricia Rojo Bushnell, an attorney for Marcellus Williams:

“Today, we saw two different approaches to prosecution, one committed to serving justice, the other intent on winning at any cost. Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell’s office acknowledged that Marcellus Williams’ conviction and death sentence are unreliable, that the previous administration’s mishandling of evidence has foreclosed Mr. Williams’ ability to conclusively prove his innocence at this moment in time, and that under these circumstances, it would be unconscionable to allow his execution. Meanwhile, Attorney General Andrew Bailey continues to make every effort to try to kill this innocent man, including fighting the proposed resolution that would have brought finality to the proceedings while respecting the wishes of the victim’s family.

“We hope the circuit court will agree with PA Bell that the admitted constitutional errors in this case require Mr. Williams’ conviction and death sentence be vacated.”

• Tricia Rojo Bushnell, attorney for Marcellus Williams
• August 28, 2024