Freed death row inmates call for exoneration of convicted killer after DNA evidence links someone else to crime

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey was called out Thursday by a band of former death row inmates now exonerated who demanded he allow Marcellus Williams to be exonerated .

Williams has awaited execution for more than 20 years after he was convicted of first-degree murder in 2001 over the 1998 stabbing death of Lisha Gayle during a robbery of her suburban home in St. Louis. He is currently scheduled to be executed next month on Sept. 24th.

New testing equipment debuted after his conviction revealed the DNA found on the murder weapon didn't belong to him. Four men, a part of a group called Witness to Innocence—comprised of former inmates who were sentenced to death but were later revealed to be innocent— advocated for William's release with personal anecdotes spoken at a press conferenc e Thursday in the Missouri Capitol in Jefferson City.

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“We’re asking the Attorney General of Missouri to stop acting like innocence doesn’t matter,” said Herman Lindsey, executive director of Witness to Innocence and exoneree from Florida’s death row. “We are asking you to represent the people of Missouri by looking for the truth over politics.”

A motion was filed in favor of Williams' release by St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell, who is vying for a seat in the US House. Additionally, a St. Louis County Circuit Court Judge will hold an evidentiary hearing later this month on Aug. 21. Bailey, accompanied by Gov. Mike Parson, held another press conference one floor above the men, which was focused on unauthorized cannabinoids.

When questioned about Williams' fate, he said: “The criminal justice system has to have a component of finality. The juries of the state of Missouri under the Sixth Amendment have a right to participate in that process,” he said, “and we should respect and defer to the finality of the jury’s determination.”

He said the evidence presented in the original 2001 trial is still relevant. The prosecutors in the original trial utilized the testimony of a witness who worked as a jailhouse informant in order to get time shaved off his sentence. Williams is but one of a long line of convicts whose innocence was shown upon the arrival of new evidence.

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Former inmate Joseph Amrine, exonerated in Missouri in 2003 after informants admitted their testimony at trial was false. The Missouri Attorney General's office, at the time led by then-Democratic Attorney General Jay Nixon, acknowledged Amrine's innocence but still asked he be executed.

The case eventually arrived to the justices of the Missouri Supreme Court, where Judge Laura Denvir Stith explicitly asked then-Assistant Attorney General Frank Jung: “Are you suggesting … even if we find that Mr. Amrine is actually innocent, he should be executed?”

“That’s correct, your honor,” Jung said. The Missouri Attorney General's office has pushed back against every innocence case for the last 30 years.