By Andrea Bernal
BONNE TERRE, MO – The State of Missouri’s recent execution here of Marcellus Williams, a man falsely accused of Felicia Gayle’s murder with no physical evidence linking him to the 1998 murder case, was the focus of an article from The Atlantic titled “Why Are Innocent People Still Being Executed?” written by Elizabeth Bruening.
Bruening discusses Williams’ case to ultimately critique the justice system’s continuous use of the death penalty by asking the question—“why are innocent people—and those with a good chance of proving their innocence—still being executed?”
Williams’ trial, the article explains, consisted of a “shoddy defense” and a jury consisting of 11 white jurors and “only 1 Black juror, noting “(Gayle was white; Williams was Black.)”
The article explains Williams’ execution had been “scheduled and halted twice before amid concerns about his guilt” and Eric Greitens, Missouri’s previous governor, had granted Williams a day-of-stay and even assembled a committee to investigate his case.
However, that committee was ultimately disbanded by Mike Parsons, Missouri’s current governor, in 2023 “without ever issuing a report.”
Earlier this year, the article states, in additional efforts to prevent Williams’ execution, Wesley Bell—the current district prosecutor where Williams was convicted—filed a 63-page motion in court “seeking to set aside Williams’s death sentence on grounds of possible innocence.”
However, these efforts were ultimately rejected by Missouri’s attorney general, and now, because of that, the Atlantic writes, “Williams is now dead.”
In her article, Bruening describes how death sentences do not inherently “reflect guilt, which is why death-row exonerations are not uncommon.” Bruening cites the Equal Justice Initiative’s count to show that “one person is exonerated for every eight people executed.” Still, she explains, not everyone “who is innocent is exonerated.”
In fact, Robert Dunham—the director of the Death Penalty Policy Project—told Bruening, “At least 30, and likely more, innocent people have been executed in the United States since capital punishment resumed in the 1970s.”
Additionally, Bruening points to a quote by former governor of Illinois Pat Quinn, who said, “Since our experience has shown that there is no way to design a perfect death-penalty system, free from the numerous flaws that can lead to wrongful convictions or discriminatory treatment, I have concluded that the proper course of action is to abolish it.”
Quinn argued, “With our broken system, we cannot ensure justice is achieved in every case.”
In fact, Bruening notes surveys have suggested that “supporters of capital punishment are aware of the possibility of executing innocent people.”
The Atlantic story cites a 2021 study by the Pew Research Center showing “78 percent of Americans acknowledge that there is some risk that innocent people will be executed; only 21 percent say that there are adequate safeguards in place to prevent it.”
Bruening claims it is not possible that “current supporters of capital punishment simply don’t realize that the death penalty occasionally results in the execution of innocents. They must know, and they support it anyway.”
Bruening critiques supporters of capital punishment and death-penalty advocates, charging, “Perhaps death-penalty advocates don’t care about the lives being extinguished, innocent or not—death-row prisoners are disproportionately Black and poor.”
She continues, “And perhaps others are loath to admit that the criminal-justice system is prone to error. But for some, the death penalty offers another major benefit: It is an opportunity for the state to exhibit ultimate force, the destruction of a human life.”
Bruening concludes by directly addressing America’s current experience with “execution sprees,” citing “one person was executed the week before last, four this past week, and three more are scheduled for October.”
“Maybe all of the people being put to death now are guilty, but there’s more than a sliver of a chance that someone among them is or was innocent,” Bruening says. “That’s eight executions, after all.”
