JEFFERSON CITY • Attorneys for a man facing execution for the murder of a former Post-Dispatch reporter spent more than an hour behind closed doors Wednesday with a special panel of judges who could help decide his fate.
In a meeting that came exactly one year after then-Gov. Eric Greitens stopped the execution of Marcellus Williams, the legal team presented an abbreviated version of Williams’ case.
Williams
Attorney Barry Scheck, who also defended O.J. Simpson in 1994, said the meeting was “very professional, very thorough.â€
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“We appreciate it,†said Scheck, who told reporters that he could not discuss details of the proceedings before the judges.
Another of Williams’ attorneys, Kent Gipson of Kansas City, said the scene was not as formal as a public court proceeding.
“The board was very attentive. They gave both sides ample opportunity to say what needed to be said,†Gipson said. “Certainly, everybody got to be heard.â€
Williams was sentenced to death in 2001 for the brutal stabbing murder of former Post-Dispatch reporter and University City resident Lisha Gayle in 1998.
Williams when Greitens stopped the process and invoked a rarely used state law to appoint five judges to review the case and recommend life or death.
In June, after Greitens quit, Gov. Mike Parson directed the panel of retired jurists to continue its work.
Prosecutors said Williams was burglarizing Gayle’s home in University City when she surprised him. Gayle, who left the paper in 1992, fought for her life as she was stabbed repeatedly.
Gayle
The Missouri Supreme Court in 2015 . Using technology that was not available at the time of the killing, those tests show that DNA found on the knife matched that of an unknown male. Williams’ DNA was not found on the knife.
Despite that finding, the state’s high court and either appoint a special master to hear his innocence claim or vacate the death sentence and order his sentence commuted to life in prison.
Attorneys representing the state did not comment on Wednesday’s hearing.
Nimrod Chapel, president of the Missouri NAACP, said the session represented the “last and final venue†for Williams.
“The evidence that’s been presented would indicate that he needs a fair shake at justice,†Chapel told reporters gathered outside the meeting.
Cassandra Gould, pastor of Quinn Chapel AME Church in Jefferson City, said she was praying that “there is no more black blood spilled into the ground.â€
“We pray that justice will actually be done,†Gould said.
Williams’ son, Marcellus, said he talked to his father on Tuesday.
“I talk to him all the time. We talk about regular things. He’s always in good spirits,†the younger Williams said.
Despite the slow pace, Williams said he was hopeful his father would be taken off death row or freed by Parson.
“I’m feeling really good about it,†Williams said. “Slow motion doesn’t mean no motion. I’m good with that.â€
It is unclear when the committee will make a recommendation to the governor.
Members of the panel are former U.S. District Judge Carol Jackson, former 22nd Circuit Judge Michael David, former Circuit Judge Peggy Fenner of Jackson County, former Missouri Court of Appeals Western District Judge Paul Spinden and former Circuit Judge Ellen Roper of Boone County.