Missouri
Missouri man makes life-or-death effort to prove innocence before execution scheduled for next month
Testimony begins Wednesday in a hearing with life-or-death implications for Missouri inmate Marcellus Williams.
The case before St. Louis County Circuit Judge Bruce Hilton is on a motion filed by Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell seeking to vacate Williams’ 1998 murder conviction. Time is of the essence: Williams is scheduled to be executed Sept. 24, and neither Missouri Gov. Mike Parson nor Attorney General Andrew Bailey has shown any inclination to delay the process.
Williams, 55, was convicted of first-degree murder in the 1998 stabbing death of Lisha Gayle. He was hours away from execution in August 2017 when then-Gov. Eric Greitens, a Republican, granted a stay after DNA testing unavailable at the time of the killing showed that DNA on the knife matched someone else, not Williams.
That evidence prompted Bell to reexamine the case.
“This never-before-considered evidence, when paired with the relative paucity of other, credible evidence supporting guilt, as well as additional considerations of ineffective assistance of counsel and racial discrimination in jury selection, casts inexorable doubt on Mr. Williams’s conviction and sentence,” Bell’s motion states.
Williams, who is Black, was convicted and sentenced to death by a jury consisting of 11 white people and one Black person.
Bailey, a Republican, stated in a June court filing that “evidence supporting conviction at trial was overwhelming,” despite the new DNA claims.
A 2021 Missouri law allows prosecuting attorneys to file a motion seeking to vacate a conviction they believe was unjust. The law has resulted in exonerations of three men who spent decades in prison, including Christopher Dunn last month.
Typically, a judge hears a few days of testimony then takes up to two months to weigh the evidence. Hilton won’t have the luxury of time though: Williams’ execution is 34 days away.
The Missouri Supreme Court set the September execution date on June 4, hours after it ruled that Parson, a Republican, was within his rights when he dissolved a board of inquiry convened by Greitens after he stopped the 2017 execution.
The inquiry board, consisting of five retired judges, never issued a ruling or reached a conclusion on whether the new DNA evidence exonerated Williams. Parson dissolved the board in June 2023, saying it was time to “move forward.”
Johnathan Shiflett, spokesperson for Parson, said the governor “will give thoughtful consideration to the question of clemency for Mr. Williams, just as he has for all other capital punishment cases during his tenure, but no decision has been made at this time.” Parson, a former county sheriff, has been governor for 11 executions and never granted clemency.
In addition to Dunn, who spent 34 years behind bars for the death of a 15-year-old St. Louis boy, the Missouri law allowing prosecutors to challenge convictions led to freedom for two other men — Kevin Strickland and Lamar Johnson. Bailey was not attorney general when Strickland’s case went to a hearing, but his office opposed vacating the convictions of Dunn and Johnson.
Bailey also opposed efforts to overturn the conviction of Sandra Hemme, who spent 43 years in prison for murder, though that case was adjudicated through appeals, not a prosecutor’s motion. A judge ruled in June that Hemme should be freed. Bailey filed multiple appeals to try and keep her behind bars, but Hemme was released in July.
Strickland was freed in 2021 after serving more than 40 years for three killings in Kansas City after a judge ruled he had been wrongfully convicted in 1979. In 2023, a St. Louis judge overturned Johnson’s conviction. He served nearly 28 years for a killing he always said he didn’t commit.
Williams is the first death row inmate whose innocence claim will go before a judge since passage of the 2021 law. He’s getting support from another former condemned inmate. Joseph Amrine spent 17 years on death row before he was freed in 2003 after the Missouri Supreme Court ruled that no credible evidence linked him to the killing of another inmate.
“The state has nothing to gain by killing the wrong person,” Amrine said in a statement. “I hope the Attorney General’s office can change their approach and acknowledge there are human beings impacted by their actions.”
Prosecutors at Williams’ trial said he broke into Gayle’s suburban St. Louis home on Aug. 11, 1998, heard water running in the shower, and found a large butcher knife. When Gayle came downstairs, she was stabbed 43 times. Her purse and her husband’s laptop were stolen. Gayle, who was white, was a social worker who previously worked as a reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Authorities said Williams stole a jacket to conceal blood on his shirt. Williams’ girlfriend asked him why he would wear a jacket on a hot day. The girlfriend said she later saw the laptop in the car and that Williams sold it a day or two later.
Prosecutors also cited testimony from Henry Cole, who shared a St. Louis cell with Williams in 1999 while Williams was jailed on unrelated charges. Cole told prosecutors Williams confessed to the killing and offered details about it.
Williams’ attorneys responded that the girlfriend and Cole were both convicted felons out for a $10,000 reward.
A theme of the Missouri Tigers’ fall camp for 2024 was open competition. Everyone, even proven, returning starters would have to prove they were deserving of their job.
The set of 17 practices wrapped up Saturday evening with an open practice at Faurot Field, one final chance for players to earn opportunities. Three young players in particular made the most of their opportunities this fall, possibly earning consistent roles on the team this year.
Watch the video below as Missouri football reporter Joey Van Zummeren breaks down the three players who worked their way up the depth chart this fall camp by stacking together impressive practices.
Welcome to Missouri Tigers On SI’s “Extra Point,” a video series featuring the site’s Missouri beat writers. Multiple times a week, the writers will provide analysis on a topic concerning the Tigers or the landscape of college sports.
Two of the surprising standouts were receivers Daniel Blood and Joshua Manning. Missouri’s receiver room is already stacked with talent so it will be an uphill battle for Blood and Manning to see the field too much but they took the right steps this fall.
Corner back Nic Deloach also proved himself this fall. After a freshman season where he was dealing with freshman nerves, he’s entering his sophomore season with more confidence and its showing.
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SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (KY3) – Signs of relief in the nation’s overdose crisis.
New state-level data from the CDC shows both fatal and nonfatal overdose cases are down in the Ozarks and across Missouri.
“An overdose can happen to anyone at any place,” said Julie Viele with the Springfield Greene County Health Department.
There have been 16% fewer people who have died in May of 2024 compared to May of 2023. The nonfatal cases dropped by more than 28% during the same time period. Springfield-Greene County Health Department leaders say the number of cases is also going down locally.
In many cases, the availability of Narcan has made a difference.
“I would say it’s a factor in regards to seeing a trend in plateauing or decreasing the overdose rates,” said Viele.
According to Mercy EMS Director Bob Patterson, the non-fatal cases reported to emergency rooms are also down.
“Part of those reduced numbers is due to the Narcan leave-behind kits which we have been providing in this community for some time,” he said.
The efforts to fight overdoses within the community aren’t limited to Narcan.
“We also have an app called Revive. It is another tool that the health department launched in June of 2023. It is a tool to provide step-by-step instructions on how to respond if someone is having an overdose,” said Viele.
But the news isn’t all good. Officials say there’s still a lot of work to do to fight the community health crisis.
Patterson said, “We’re still seeing roughly 1 to 2 to 3 a day. We have historically seen some spikes from time to time. Our partners in the community will communicate that very rapidly so that we’re all prepared.
“We still have high prevalence rates. The efforts still need to be there. We still need to get the Naloxone in the hands of our community members and make everybody aware,” said Viele.
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Missouri basketball has released its full 2024-25 slate.
The entirety of the Tigers’ upcoming schedule was made available in a news release Tuesday afternoon, with all 13 nonconference games now accounted for and the Southeastern Conference schedule now aligned.
Before SEC play begins Jan. 4 with a game at Auburn, Mizzou will have just one true road game in its nonconference, which comes at Memphis on Nov. 4 to open the season. MU will play 20 games at Mizzou Arena over the course of the season.
The only other time Missouri leaves the comforts of home before the new year is for the Braggin’ Rights matchup against Illinois in St. Louis, which will be played Sunday, Dec. 22 at Enterprise Center.
The day of the Border War game could cap a potentially action-packed 24 hours in Columbia.
Mizzou’s game against Kansas is Sunday, Dec. 8, at Mizzou Arena, which is the day after the SEC Championship football game is set to be played in Atlanta and the same day the College Football Playoff committee will announce the final 12-team field competing for the national championship.
The previously unreported games on the noncon slate are home games against Howard (Nov. 8); LIU (Dec. 14); Jacksonville State (Dec. 17) and Alabama State (Dec. 30).
The schedule also confirms that Missouri will not host Minnesota in the second leg of an arranged home-and-home. That game is currently still planned, just not for the 2024-25 season.
Mizzou’s first home game in SEC play will be Jan. 7 or 8, which will be decided at a later date, against LSU. Missouri travels to conference newcomers Texas on Jan. 21 or 22 and hosts Oklahoma on Feb. 11/12.
The final game of the regular season is March 8 at Mizzou Arena against Kentucky.
Tip times and TV designations are still to be announced. Missouri is coming off an 8-24 season that saw the Tigers go winless in SEC play.
Here is Missouri’s full 2024-25 schedule:
Full Missouri basketball 2024-25 schedule
| Date | Opponent | Location |
| Monday, Nov. 4 | Memphis | Memphis, Tenn |
| Friday, Nov. 8 | Howard | Mizzou Arena |
| Monday Nov. 11 | Eastern Washington | Mizzou Arena |
| Thursday, Nov. 14 | Mississippi Valley State | Mizzou Arena |
| Friday, Nov. 22 | Pacific | Mizzou Arena |
| Sunday, Nov. 24 | Arkansas-Pine Bluff | Mizzou Arena |
| Wednesday, Nov. 27 | Lindenwood | Mizzou Arena |
| Tuesday, Dec. 3 | California (ACC/SEC Challenge) | Mizzou Arena |
| Sunday, Dec. 8 | Kansas | Mizzou Arena |
| Saturday, Dec. 14 | Long Island | Mizzou Arena |
| Tuesday, Dec. 17 | Jacksonville State | Mizzou Arena |
| Sunday, Dec. 22 | Illinois | St. Louis (Neutral) |
| Monday, Dec. 30 | Alabama State | Mizzou Arena |
| Saturday, Jan. 4 | Auburn | Auburn, Ala. |
| Jan. 7/8 | LSU | Mizzou Arena |
| Saturday, Jan. 11 | Vanderbilt | Mizzou Arena |
| Jan. 14/15 | Florida | Gainesville, Fla. |
| Saturday, Jan. 18 | Arkansas | Mizzou Arena |
| Jan. 21/22 | Texas | Austin, Texas |
| Saturday, Jan. 25 | Ole Miss | Mizzou Arena |
| Saturday, Feb. 1 | Mississippi State | Starkville, Miss. |
| Feb. 4/5 | Tennessee | Knoxville, Tenn. |
| Saturday, Feb. 8 | Texas A&M | Mizzou Arena |
| Feb. 11/12 | Oklahoma | Mizzou Arena |
| Saturday, Feb. 15 | Georgia | Athens, Ga. |
| Feb. 18/19 | Alabama | Mizzou Arena |
| Saturday, Feb. 22 | Arkansas | Fayetteville, Ark. |
| Tuesday, Feb. 25 | South Carolina | Mizzou Arena |
| Saturday, March 1 | Vanderbilt | Nashville, Tenn. |
| March 4/5 | Oklahoma | Norman, Okla. |
| Saturday, March 8 | Kentucky | Mizzou Arena |
| March 12-16 | SEC Tournament | Nashville, Tenn. |
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