Man scheduled for execution next week in Missouri says his trial excluded Black jurors

Attorneys for Marcellus Williams are using a prosecutor’s testimony to try and reopen proceedings before his execution next week by the state of Missouri.

During an evidentiary hearing on Aug. 28, Keith Larner, who was the prosecutor on Williams’ murder case in St. Louis County, said he struck a potential juror because he was a young Black man with glasses.

“I thought they looked like they were brothers,” Larner said of Williams and the prospective juror.

“Familial brothers,” he continued. “I don’t mean Black people.”

Williams, 55, was found guilty in the 1998 murder of Felicia Gayle in St. Louis County.

He is scheduled to die by lethal injection on Sept. 24. His attorneys argue that Larner violated his constitutional rights — jurors cannot be excluded solely on their race.

“Racism is anathema to justice,” the motion said. “It has reared its ugly head here.”

Williams’ legal team filed a motion in federal court Tuesday. It also raised other issues with jury selection. Larner kept notes during the process, but they later went missing from the case file. The state ended up rejecting six of the seven potential Black jurors. The final jury was comprised of 11 white people and one Black person. And, the motion said, Larner questioned prospective Black and non-Black jurors differently, leaving Black jurors more susceptible to providing answers that would have disqualified them.

The motion is the latest attempt to spare Williams’ life. He faced execution dates in January 2015 and August 2017, but those were halted to conduct further investigation and DNA testing.

No forensic evidence ties Williams to the crime. He was convicted primarily on the word of two witnesses who testified against him and who have since died.

In January, St. Louis County Prosecutor Wesley Bell filed a motion in support of vacating Williams’ conviction. Larner’s testimony came in a hearing related to that motion.

Last week, St. Louis County Circuit Judge Bruce Hilton denied Bell’s case and upheld Williams’ death sentence. The St. Louis County Prosecutor’s Office said they plan to appeal Hilton’s decision. Williams’ legal team filed a motion to stay his execution until the appeal is resolved.

Williams also has a clemency application before Missouri Gov. Mike Parson.

The application and Tuesday’s motion note that Gayle’s family want the case to be finalized, but do not support going through with the death penalty.

This story was originally published September 17, 2024 at 4:40 PM.

Katie Moore

The Kansas City Star

816-234-4312

Katie Moore was an enterprise and accountability reporter for The Star. She covered justice issues, including policing, prison conditions and the death penalty. She is a University of Kansas graduate and began her career as a reporter in 2015 in her hometown of Topeka, Kansas.