Attorney Statement: Court Sets August Hearing on Prosecuting Attorney’s Motion to Vacate Marcellus Williams’s Wrongful Conviction

(July 2, 2024) Today, a judge in the Circuit Court of St. Louis County, Missouri, scheduled a hearing for August 21, 2024, to assess the “clear and convincing evidence” of actual innocence that led Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell to move to vacate Marcellus Williams’s wrongful conviction and death sentence. Despite overwhelming evidence of his innocence, Missouri has scheduled Mr. Williams for execution on September 24, 2024. 

The Prosecuting Attorney filed the motion to vacate in January 2024 after three independent DNA experts confirmed that Mr. Williams is conclusively excluded as the source of male DNA found on the weapon used to murder Felicia Gayle in 1998. This new DNA testing is consistent with other forensic evidence left by the perpetrator—including a bloody shoe print and hairs next to the victim’s body—that also excluded Mr. Williams. His conviction rested on the testimony of two unreliable informants who testified in exchange for favorable treatment in their own criminal cases and for reward money.

Below is a statement from Tricia Bushnell, an attorney for Mr. Williams:

“After reviewing the DNA evidence that proves Marcellus Williams is actually innocent, Prosecuting Attorney Bell took the appropriate steps under Missouri law to correct his wrongful conviction. The court will now do its part to assess this never-before-considered exculpatory evidence. This is the procedure the Missouri Legislature created to ensure the state does not execute an innocent person like Mr. Williams. The Attorney General should not be trying to block the court’s review and the Missouri Supreme Court should stay Mr. Williams’s execution.”

• Tricia Bushnell, attorney for Marcellus Williams
• July 2, 2024