By Estrella Torres, Vy Tran, Jenna Tooley
JEFFERSON CITY, MO — Marcellus Williams, who has been on death row since 2001, continues to maintain his innocence from the 1998 murder of Felicia Picus, but faces an execution date if the state of Missouri has its way.
DNA evidence from the murder weapon in 2015 proved to be inconsistent with Williams’s profile, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, that adds no physical evidence has ever been found to connect Williams to the crime.
In an attempt to pursue the truth, former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens created a Board of Inquiry to review the underlying facts of the case, and this time, fairly, said DPIC, quoting from The Intercept.
Gov. Greitens has stated that “a sentence of death is the ultimate, permanent punishment… To carry out the death penalty, the people of Missouri must have confidence in the judgment of guilt. In light of new information, I am appointing a Board of Inquiry in this case,” the Intercept wrote.
However, the newest Missouri Gov. Mike Parson dissolved this committee board and rescinded the executive order in June 2023, leaving Williams at risk of execution yet again, according to the Intercept.
Parson, said the Intercept, said that “this board was established nearly six years ago, and it is time to move forward… We could stall and delay for another six years, deferring justice, leaving a victim’s family in limbo, and solving nothing. This administration won’t do that.”
In 2001, Williams was charged and given the death penalty based on two witness testimonies from Henry Cole, a jailhouse informant, and Laura Asaro, his ex-girlfriend. At the time, both witnesses faced “unrelated charges and stood to benefit from testifying to the state, the DPIC noted.
On the day of Williams’s proposed execution day in August 2017, Greitens, Parson’s predecessor, issued a reprieve for a Board of Inquiry to review his innocence amid mounting DNA evidence and “any other relevant evidence not available to the jury,” DPIC sourced from the Intercept.
One year after the formation of the Board of Inquiry, Greitens left office, leaving the responsibility to the current Gov. Parson. The board’s first meeting was canceled because “Governor Greitens’ resignation … called into question whether our authority would continue after he left office,” as stated by Judge Carol Jackson.
Williams‘s attorneys wrote to the Missouri Supreme Court that “the governor’s clemency power exists for the public good, not his own… As a result, a board of inquiry serves the public, not the governor, and the board ‘shall’ make a report and recommendation for the governor’s consideration before he makes a final clemency decision,” DPIC cited.
Missouri has had a preventative measure passed in 1963 to prevent wrongful executions, said the Intercept report, adding the governor is not only allowed to grant reprieves, commutations, and pardons, but to also “appoint a board of inquiry tasked with gathering information bearing on whether a person ‘condemned to death’ should be executed.”
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey argues Gov. Parson’s clemency authority allows him to disband the board of inquiry. In addition, he claims that Williams is attempting to “hijack” Gov. Parson’s clemency authority, said the Intercept, as quoted in the DPIC.
In response, The Conviction and Incident Review Unit in the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, representing Williams, plans to sue Gov. Parson on top of working to prove their client’s innocence.
“All Mr. Williams is asking is for the board of inquiry to be able to complete its work and issue a report and recommendation, ensuring that at least one government entity finally hears all the evidence of his innocence,” said Midwest Innocence Project Executive Director Tricia Rojo Bushnell.
Bushnell adds, “Mr. Williams has a right to this process that was started by Gov. Greitens precisely out of the concern that Missouri may execute an innocent person.”
Attorneys for Williams argue the current governor “violated state law when he dissolved the board before it could fulfill its statutory obligation to provide a recommendation in his case,” said the Intercept, adding Williams‘s attorneys have filed a formal request to the Missouri Supreme Court, asking to delay setting an execution date for the next six months. 
