Missouri executes a man despite prosecutors' push to overturn conviction
theguardian.com
theguardian.com
From Texas to California, as long as people are told that someone is guilty, they do not even need a trial or arrest before their basic human rights are taken away. This extends to taking a life as well.
The public needs to understand that the death penalty in the way it has been known is being modernized. There are many ways for the state to conduct an execution. These are active today. With no due process.
And with full bipartisan support.
> In January, Wesley Bell, the Democratic prosecuting attorney in St Louis who has championed criminal justice reforms, filed a motion to overturn Williams’s conviction. Bell cited repeated DNA testing finding that Williams’s fingerprints were not on the knife.
> The governor also rejected Williams’s clemency request on Monday, which noted that the victim’s family and three jurors supported calls to revoke his death sentence. The US supreme court denied a final request to halt the execution on Tuesday, with the three liberal justices dissenting.
Parson isn't running for governor this year [1]. He's focussed on his legacy.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_Missouri_gubernatorial_el...
This is an unfalsifiable hypothesis--everyone is entitled to their own beliefs. What we can say is the people involved have had consistent positions for years as this case snaked its way through Missouri's and our nation's highest courts.
To the extent there are near-term electioneering interests, it's on the part of the prosecutor who sought to overturn the conviction: Mr. Bell is the Democrats' Congressional candidate for Missouri's 1st District [1].
[1] https://missouriindependent.com/2024/08/06/wesley-bell-defea...
Why would DNA testing have anything to do with fingerprints?
This is like using pylint to look for errors in your FORTRAN code.
Just the Guardian being the Guardian. Fortunately, they link to their source which states "three DNA experts examined testing from the knife 'and each has independently concluded that Mr. Williams is excluded as the source of the male DNA on the handle of the murder weapon'" [1].
[1] https://apnews.com/article/missouri-death-row-inmate-dna-evi...
(Of course, that comes from the same Guardian article.)
How did you find this?
They have violated my due process rights. I am told by everyone I get no arrest or trial. It is a long story.
At any rate, I can say that Dallas, Memphis, Nashville, Denver, San Diego, L.A., Santa Monica, and now San Francisco at the city, with police and city services and all the way to the state Govts, including the Feds and DOJ all agree to let what they call a BBQ to continue. Basically, the idea is to take the accusation of a crime as a conviction, and use it to cook the accused so that they die before even charges have to be filed.
Welcome to America
The DNA evidence was never the main thrust of the case.
FWIW I am against the death penalty since it gives too much power to the state. But slanting the news is not a good way forward.
After the commission disbanded Williams agreed to plead guilty with an Alford plea and accept life in prison but that deal was rejected by the courts so the execution moved forward.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/24/us/marcellus-williams-schedul...
https://innocenceproject.org/who-is-marcellus-williams-man-f...
> Both of these individuals were known fabricators; neither revealed any information that was not either included in media accounts about the case or already known to the police. Their statements were inconsistent with their own prior statements, with each other’s accounts, and with the crime scene evidence, and none of the information they provided could be independently verified. Aside from their testimony, the only evidence connecting Mr. Williams to the crime was a witness who said Mr. Williams sold him a laptop taken from Ms. Gayle’s home, but the jury did not learn that Mr. Williams told the witness he had received the laptop from Laura Asaro.
https://innocenceproject.org/who-is-marcellus-williams-man-f...
> Additionally, subsequent DNA testing has never exonerated Williams.
Wait a minute... wasn't it supposed to be "innocent until proven guilty"? The whole list mentioned is only circumstantial evidence (hearsay, suspicious coincidences etc.)...
To your second point, if you classify the literal possession of the stolen items from the burglary as a suspicious coincidence, I'm not really sure what you actually consider evidence? This is pretty much the smoking gun here, we even have testimony that he sold the stolen laptop so it's not like they just magically appeared in his car without his knowledge...
I do find it strange the county prosecutors are pushing back though, but that's where it ends really.
The evidence undeniably places him in proximity to the crime. But it doesn't prove he did it.
It might have, had the cops not been so sloppy with the evidence as to mess up the fingerprints on the knife. But the point of a smoking gun is that it's smoking and it's the gun. Not random stuff that was also in the house when the gun was smoking.
He build have bought it from the actual burglar for instance. Or keep it for him.
I do not know about the case, lube in France and just saw the headlines here and there so I certainly do not have all the details.
My point is that the fact that you have a stolen object does not necessarily mean you are the thief. It is a strong suspicion, sure, but we are taking about death sentence for murder.