ST. LOUIS COUNTY 鈥 The innocence hearing for a man on death row Wednesday morning was delayed for hours as attorneys privately discussed a legal resolution to the case.
The hearing, which was slated to begin at 8:30 a.m., comes about five weeks before Marcellus Williams is set to be executed for the murder of former Post-Dispatch reporter Lisha Gayle, who was stabbed 43 times in her suburban home in August 1998.
Dozens of people packed Judge Bruce Hilton's courtroom for those three hours, as bailiffs mingled and occasionally attorneys for both sides walked through the courtroom and back into the judge's chambers.
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Hilton came out just before 9:30 a.m. to tell attendees that the attorneys were talking and had until 10 a.m. to reach an agreement. He said the innocence hearing would continue as scheduled if they hadn't.
About two hours later, at 11:20 a.m., Hilton came out again.
He said the lawyers had been "diligently working" on this "emotional issue." They had presented him with a consent decree, an agreement to resolve a dispute without admitting liability or guilt.
Hilton then recessed the court until 1 p.m. to review the proposed decree and make a ruling.
Williams was set to die in August 2017, but hours before his execution, then-Gov. Eric Greitens halted the process and ordered an investigation into the DNA evidence that could not be tested at the time of the murder. That evidence showed there was DNA on the knife used to stab Gayle that matched someone else, not Williams.
Greitens appointed five retired judges to investigate.
Six years later, Gov. Mike Parson disbanded the group of judges in June 2023. It鈥檚 unclear whether they ever reached a conclusion.
Williams sued, and the Missouri Supreme Court set his Sept. 24 execution date hours after it ruled Parson was within his rights to break up the board and move forward with the execution.
狐狸视频 County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell filed a motion in January to vacate the murder conviction.
Attorney General Andrew Bailey鈥檚 office last month filed a motion to block the innocence hearing. His lawyers argued that the 狐狸视频 County Circuit Court judge does not have the authority to reverse or overrule Williams鈥 first-degree murder conviction because a higher court has already issued a ruling in the case and set an execution date.
The Missouri Supreme Court聽denied the state attorney general鈥檚 request聽but did not provide its reasoning.
Williams' case has unfolded alongside another high-profile wrongful conviction case in the region.聽
Christopher Dunn, 52, was found innocent by a judge in a 1990 狐狸视频 murder he was serving a life sentence for.
Dunn in late July was released from prison after nearly 34 years.聽