Source: Marcellus Williams legal team / Marcellus Williams
The execution of Khaliifah Ibn Rayford Daniels, also known as
Marcellus Williams, in
Missouri despite evidence of his innocence has sparked a wave of outrage and reactions online.
On
Tuesday (September 24), the state of Missouri executed Marcellus Williams, who chose the name Khaliifah ibn Rayford Daniels ‘Abdul Qudduus upon taking his Shahada, the formal declaration of Islamic faith, by lethal injection. Williams, who was convicted in 1998 for the murder of Felicia “Lisha” Gayle in her St. Louis home, had been fighting for his exoneration but his pleas were turned down by Missouri Governor Mike Parson and the
Supreme Court against a stay of execution.
“The execution of an innocent person is the most extreme manifestation of Missouri’s obsession with finality over truth, justice, and humanity,” said Tricia Rojo Bushnell of the Midwest Innocence Project. Bushnell served as Khaliifah’s lawyer. Khaliifah converted to Islam during his time in prison, reaffirming his faith with his final words.
Khaliifah, 55, had received two stays of execution in 2015 and 2017 but his conviction was not thrown out. “Marcellus Williams should be alive today,” said local prosecutor Wesley Bell in a statement. “There were multiple points in the timeline when decisions could have been made that would have spared him the death penalty.” Bell filed a 63-page motion to overturn the conviction in January, after reviewing his case and determining that there was a miscarriage of justice using a law enacted in the state in 2021.
Other elements such as the state improperly rejecting Black jurors resulting in a predominately white jury with one Black member (Gayle was white), the DNA evidence on the murder weapon cited by prosecutors as Khaliifah’s was found to not match, shed more light on Khaliifah’s case as noted by anti-death penalty activist Sister Helen Prejean in a post thread on X, formerly Twitter.
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Thousands rallied to petition for Williams not to be executed, resulting in bundles of petitions being delivered to Governor Parson’s office in addition to calls and faxes. Gayle’s own family issued
a statement calling for the state not to execute Khaliifah, which was cited in his clemency petition. “The family defines closure as Marcellus being allowed to live,” the petition stated. “Marcellus’ execution is not necessary.”
The aftermath left many angry and dismayed, particularly online where many expressed their thoughts. Some also noted how
Mark and Patricia McCloskey, two white lawyers who menaced Black Lives Matter protestors with guns outside their home in 2020, were pardoned by Parson with no delays.
