For over 24 years, Marcellus “Khaliifah” Williams has endured life on Missouri’s death row for a crime he did not commit. No evidence ties him to the victim or the crime scene. The two “incentivized informants” who testified against him were promised reward money and leniency in their own pending cases.
In 2015, Marcellus requested a DNA test that cleared his name and pointed to another individual as the perpetrator. This year, the St. Louis County Prosecution determined his innocence. Despite all this, Missouri plans to execute him in less than 80 days.
A Poet and Leader: Marcellus Williams’ Life and Influence
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Marcellus Williams is a lifelong poet and has become the imam (Islamic leadership position) for his community at the Potosi Correctional Center.
“I don’t have to write. In fact, there have been long periods of time that I didn’t write a piece at all,” he told the Innocence Project. “But it’s a way for me to express myself and communicate and be understood.” The Innocence Project has also published a handful of his poems.
Though he writes on various topics and from different perspectives, Williams uses poetry to connect with others entangled in the same horrifying, confusing legal system.
“If I felt that a poem would aid someone in looking at a traumatic, stressful, or difficult situation in a different light from another perspective that could possibly be a step upon the path of healing, then I would write a poem for that person,” Williams also told the Innocence Project. He has written many poems for the friends and family he has inside.
The Fight for Marcellus Williams’ Life
As efforts continue to end instances of police brutality in Missouri and beyond, there is also a pressing need for advocacy on behalf of those currently trapped within the court system. This group requires a unique form of support and attention from organizers.
Since 2005, Missourians to Abolish the Death Penalty (MADP) have been actively involved in advocating for clemency and innocence cases while navigating through complex and predatory legal proceedings. Being the only organization working towards abolishing the death penalty statewide, MADP continues to strive despite Missouri having the third highest execution rate (per capita) in the United States.
As of now, Missouri is one of the five states that still has the death penalty in place. Unfortunately, Marcellus “Khaliifah” Williams is set to be executed in September unless there is public intervention.
In 2021, MADP took a crucial step towards establishing Black leadership within the organization by hiring Michelle Smith as their Racial Justice Coordinator. Today, Smith serves as the Co-Director of the organization. According to Smith, Black individuals have historically been excluded from the death penalty movement, with religious white folks and attorneys being the most visible members.
MADP, an organization that advocates against the death penalty, highlights the fact that this form of punishment has a historical precedence in state-sanctioned killings, such as lynchings and the mass genocide of Indigenous people. It is vital to recognize the leadership of Black people, people of color, and formerly incarcerated individuals in this movement.
The death penalty is a highly subjective sentence that can vary across different states. It can potentially rule dozens of different crimes. The Death Penalty Information Center has revealed some alarming statistics. Despite only making up 14.4% of the population, Black people are sentenced in 33.9% of death penalty cases.
According to research conducted by the Santa Clara Law Review and the University of North Carolina, cases resulting in a death penalty charge were found to be at least 3 times more likely when the victim was white. Shockingly, three out of every four cases that resulted in a death penalty charge involved white victims. This indicates that the death penalty rulings are plagued by the same systemic racism that permeates the entire legal system.
According to Smith, those who are incarcerated are facing life-threatening conditions. He stated that there is a lot of injustice happening in Missouri prisons, including murder and torture, which are absolutely horrifying. The primary goal of their organization is to educate people, as there are many individuals in Missouri who are not aware that the state has the death penalty. Shockingly, four people were executed last year, and two have already been executed this year. The Defender recently reported that 13 people die in Missouri prisons every month, as highlighted in the story about Othel Moore Jr.
Many deaths, including brutal cases like the torture-murder of Moore Jr., are deemed as “natural” consequences of imprisonment by those in power. Unfortunately, countless such incidents never receive state attention or trials. It is crucial to educate people about the death penalty, not just in the context of individual clemency cases, but to raise awareness about the fundamentally violent nature of our legal system. Prisons are not equipped to provide rehabilitation, nor can they ensure basic safety or livable conditions.
Many news outlets tend to portray state murders as an inevitable, objective, and justifiable act. They have conditioned their readers to accept stories of police officers killing unarmed and non-threatening individuals as the only reasonable solution for ensuring public safety.
Government-funded executions, including death penalty murders, are not inevitable. These killings are meticulously planned and executed only after the person has spent an average of ten years awaiting death. It is a tragic loss of human life, made even more appalling by the government’s preference for prioritizing these murders over fundamental social services.
The case of Marcellus “Khaliifah” Williams serves as a disturbing illustration of the extent to which the court system can go to overlook and delay evidence that contradicts their verdict, which was both hasty and biased.
According to the Innocence Project, Williams’ case was determined based on the testimony of two individuals who were promised both reward money and leniency in their own ongoing cases. However, neither of these witnesses were able to provide any new information regarding the case, and their statements were not verifiable or consistent with the existing evidence.
In 2015, Missouri’s Supreme Court intervened to halt the execution of Williams. This was done to review crucial DNA evidence that had surfaced years after the crime. The evidence, which was found on the murder weapon and at the crime scene, proved Williams’s innocence and established that he was not involved in the killing.
Due to severe mismanagement of the court proceedings, none of Williams’s new evidence was officially presented during the retrial in the Supreme Court. In 2017, the case was again postponed by Governor Eric Grietens. Shockingly, in June 2023, Governor Mike Parson unexpectedly disbanded the Board of Inquiry responsible for reviewing Williams’s case without any prior warning or explanation.
Williams took legal action against Mike Parson for breaching both the law and his constitutional rights. Following this, Parson appealed to the Missouri Supreme Court to intercede. However, in June 2024, the court dismissed the lawsuit and set the date of Williams’ execution for Sept. 24, 2024.
In 2024, the Conviction & Incident Review Unit of the St Louis County prosecutor’s office re-examined the evidence in Williams’s case. With the help of three DNA experts, it was concluded that Williams was not responsible for the crime he was convicted of, leading to a motion to vacate his conviction. However, despite this new evidence, Williams remains on death row.
Every year, an average of four individuals on death row are exonerated. Shockingly, nearly 50% of these cases involve incentivized informants, much like the case of Williams. Wrongful convictions are a widespread problem, and even with compelling evidence, many lack the resources to fight against the state in a prolonged legal battle.
Those trapped within the court system endure excruciating torment due to its profound inefficiencies and complex regulations. As a board struggles unsuccessfully for six long years to resolve a straightforward issue, individuals suffer daily anguish about their well-being while being held captive in unsanitary, hazardous, and utterly inhumane conditions.
Mobilizing for Justice: How You Can Help Free Marcellus Williams
MADP has recently launched a comprehensive campaign and toolkit aimed at advocating for the release of Khaliifah. We stand in solidarity with MADP in this pursuit. Those interested in supporting the cause can fill out the MADP partnership form. Moreover, the #FreeKhaliifah petition is open for signatures, and the community is encouraged to sign and share it. Additionally, MADP is offering fliers, posters, and yard signs to those who wish to spread the word.
On August 21, a rally is scheduled to take place outside the St. Louis County Courthouse to support Williams’s evidentiary hearing. It is crucial to unite and organize in solidarity against the death penalty. We must acknowledge that the justice system’s acceptance of state-approved execution only worsens every social issue. Every citizen in Missouri must be aware that their tax dollars are funding and enabling murder, and that prisons are designed to destroy and terminate life.
Smith believes that capital punishment is a flawed and inhumane system that is used as a response to societal failures. He argues that when an innocent person is wrongly convicted and sentenced to death, the system becomes even more egregious and inhumane. In such cases, the rationale behind capital punishment is lost, and the consequences become far more severe than any societal benefit that may be gained.
To combat a legal system and predatory government that frequently alters its own terms, community organizing is the most crucial tool.
According to Smith, when the community speaks out against injustice, it sends a powerful message to those in power. He believes that this increased awareness will not only help save the life of Marcellus ‘Khaliifah’ Williams but also contribute to the movement for the abolition of the death penalty.