St. Louis County Prosecutor Wesley Bell says that Marcellus Williams’ execution highlights two things: that prosecutors should rethink the utility of the death penalty and that a law allowing them to try to vacate convictions may need to be changed.
Bell talked about the case on St. Louis on the Air on Friday, three days after state officials executed Williams at a prison in Bonne Terre. Bell took part in a lengthy legal odyssey that gained national attention.
“Are we saying with certainty that Marcellus Williams was innocent? I can't say that, but I also can say with certainty that I don't know if he was guilty,” Bell said. “And we wanted time to be able to investigate that. But because the case was set and the execution was not stayed, even for a short time, if not permanently, it hampered our abilities to fully investigate.”
Williams was convicted of the 1998 murder of Felicia Gayle. He’s maintained his innocence for years. Police would find some of Gayle’s possessions in a car that belonged to Williams, and he pawned a laptop belonging to her husband. But no forensic evidence like DNA, hair or fingerprints ever tied him to the scene. He was convicted largely on the testimony of a former girlfriend, Laura Asaro, and a jailhouse informant, Henry Cole, both of whom have since died.
In 2021, Gov. Mike Parson signed a measure into law allowing prosecutors to try to vacate sentences. But it also stipulated that the attorney general’s office could oppose such moves, which has been the case in high-profile cases in St. Louis such as Williams’ and Lamar Johnson’s.
Bell said that he would like to see lawmakers revisit the 2021 law to make it easier for prosecutors like him to throw out wrongful convictions.
“If a duly elected prosecutor believes in good faith that there are questions about an execution, at the very least that should be given considerable weight in at least taking a defendant off death row,” Bell said.
Since he took office in 2019, Bell hasn’t sought the death penalty. He said the punishment is antiquated and actually retraumatizes the family of victims it's meant to protect. While Gayle’s family believed Williams was guilty, they came to oppose his execution.
“I think this case with Marcellus Williams, it is the exemplification of why the death penalty is wrong that the family of Felicia Gayle has to relive this yet again — this terrible tragedy,” Bell said. “And as we sit here as the prosecutor, I can't look them in the eye and tell them that the right person was punished. Because we don't know.”
“St. Louis on the Air” brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. The show is produced by Ulaa Kuziez, Miya Norfleet, Emily Woodbury, Danny Wicentowski, Elaine Cha and Alex Heuer. The audio engineer is Aaron Doerr and the production intern is Jada Jones.
