Inmates were executed in both Missouri and Texas on Tuesday. This wave of executions began last week and is expected to continue in the coming days.
A Missouri man sentenced to death was executed for the brutal murder of a woman in her home in 1998, marking the beginning of a series of executions in several states in the days that followed.
Marcellus Williams, 55, died by lethal injection shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court denied his request to intervene. Williams was sentenced to death for killing Lisha Gayle in 1998. The social worker and former newspaper reporter was stabbed more than 40 times during a break-in at her St. Louis home.
His attorney argued that the state Supreme Court should stop his execution due to alleged procedural errors in jury selection and the prosecution’s alleged improper handling of the murder weapon.
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Marcellus Williams, 55, was executed Tuesday for the 1998 murder of a social worker. (Missouri Department of Corrections via AP)
St. Louis County District Attorney Wesley Bell had attempted to overturn Williams’ conviction because of doubts about his guilt.
Gayle, 42, was a social worker and former reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Prosecutors in Williams’ trial said he broke into their home on Aug. 11, 1998, heard the shower running and found a large butcher knife.
Gayle was stabbed 43 times as she came down the stairs. Her handbag and her husband’s laptop were stolen.
Last month, Gayle’s relatives agreed to a deal between the St. Louis County District Attorney’s Office and Williams’ lawyers to commute the sentence to life in prison. But after an appeal by Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s office, the state Supreme Court voided the agreement.
Bipartisan group of Texas lawmakers calls for halting execution of convicted murderer: ‘serious doubts’
Joseph Amrine, who was rehabilitated two decades ago after years on death row, speaks at a rally in support of death row inmate Marcellus Williams in Clayton, Missouri, on August 21, 2024. (AP)
Both Republican Gov. Mike Parson and the state Supreme Court on Monday rejected Williams’ requests to stop his execution.
In Texas, Travis Mullis was pronounced dead at 7:01 p.m. in Huntsville State Prison. The death of his three-month-old son was to blame. Mullis, 38, had been sentenced to death for trampling his son Alijah to death in January 2008.
Prosecutors said Mullis, then 21, drove to nearby Galveston with his son after an argument with his girlfriend. Mullis parked his car and sexually abused his son. When the baby began crying uncontrollably, Mullis began strangling his son before removing him from the car and stomping on his head, authorities said.
The child’s body was found on the side of the road. Mullis fled Texas but turned himself in to authorities in Philadelphia. One of his lawyers, Shawn Nolan, said he did not plan to file any further appeals before the execution.
He told an appeals court that Mullis had been receiving treatment for a “serious mental illness” since he was three years old, had been sexually abused as a child, and suffered from “severe bipolar disorder.” The U.S. Supreme Court has banned the death penalty for those with intellectual disabilities, but not for those with serious mental illnesses.
Marcellus Williams and Travis Mullis were executed on Tuesday in Missouri and Texas, respectively. (AP)
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Further executions were planned in Oklahoma and Alabama. An execution was carried out in South Carolina on Friday.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
