ST. LOUIS COUNTY — The state’s high court has blocked a judge’s decision to save a man from the death penalty and instead ordered a hearing on the evidence of the case.
The Missouri Supreme Court ruled late Wednesday, just hours after Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s office asked the court to intervene in the case of Marcellus “Khaliifah” Williams, who faces execution next month for the 1998 stabbing death of a Ƶ County woman.
Early Thursday, Ƶ County Judge Bruce Hilton agreed and set a new hearing on the case for 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, Aug. 28. He said he would permit Bailey’s office to participate.
The attorney general’s request to the high court came Wednesday afternoon, in response to Hilton’s decision to accept a surprise consent decree and vacate Williams’ original 2001 first-degree murder conviction. Williams then entered an Alford plea to the first-degree murder charge, which means he maintains his innocence but agrees to forgo a trial and accept a recommended sentence. In this case, that meant accepting life in prison without the possibility of parole.
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The consent decree came after hours of closed-door talks amongst attorneys, who had been scheduled to argue a public evidentiary hearing to prove Williams was innocent of the crime.
Under the consent decree, Williams was slated to be sentenced Thursday morning so that murder victim Lisha Gayle’s family could make a statement in court. Gayle died after she was stabbed 43 times in her suburban home in August 1998.
But the writ from the Missouri Supreme Court orders Hilton to set aside the consent order and instead hold the previously scheduled evidentiary hearing, allowing Bailey’s office to participate.
The court said Hilton is then to rule on Williams’ innocence based on the findings in that hearing.
The writ said that if Hilton doesn’t set aside the decree and hold the hearing, he must file an argument to the Missouri Supreme Court showing why the court shouldn’t force him to.
“It is impossible to understand who this decision serves or what justice it provides,” said Tricia Rojo Bushnell, an attorney for Williams. “This decision directly contradicts the will of a duly elected prosecutor and the community he represents and the wishes of a family who has already lost so much. That is not justice.”
In January, Ƶ County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell’s office filed to vacate Williams’ conviction, arguing his innocence would be proven because his DNA was not on the murder weapon.
But DNA test results that were returned Monday showed that the kitchen knife had DNA samples consistent with chief investigator Edward Magee, who worked on the original trial. One other DNA profile did not belong to Williams, and forensics could not exclude the case’s original prosecutor Keith Larner from being a possible match.
“DNA evidence developed did not fully support our initial conclusion,” said Matthew Jacober, special counsel for Bell’s office. “Additional investigating and testing demonstrated that the evidence was not handled properly at the time of his conviction. As a result, DNA was likely removed and added between 1998 and 2001.”
Bell’s office said Thursday it would reevaluate its witness list for the Wednesday hearing and inform the attorney general of changes.
“We still have concerns about the integrity of the conviction of Marcellus Williams as expressed in our motion that requested this hearing, particularly given that his conviction led to the irrevocable punishment of death,” Bell said in a statement.
Williams maintains his innocence. He is set to be executed Sept. 24.