NAACP Asks Greitens To Take Final Action As Governor

ST. LOUIS, MO — Today marks Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens' last day in office, but the NAACP of Missouri is calling on him to take one final action as governor. The group wants him to commute the sentence of Marcellus Williams, who is currently serving time on death row.

Williams was convicted of murdering Felicia Gayle, a 42-year-old former reporter for the Post-Dispatch newspaper in the summer of 1998.

Gayle was stabbed dozens of times in her home in University City. But police found no physical evidence linking Williams to the murder, and convicted him based on an alleged jailhouse confession given to a fellow inmate and the testimony of Williams' girlfriend, for which prosecutors paid her thousands of dollars.

What's more, newly acquired DNA evidence linked the murder weapon to another man, not Williams.

Greitens issued a stay of execution for Williams last year, just days before he was scheduled to die by lethal injection, and appointed a Board of Inquiry to look into the case.

NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson called that step "courageous," but is now asking the outgoing governor to do more.

“I am writing to respectfully request that you commute the death sentence of Marcellus Williams," Johnson writes, according to a news release. "Last August you took the courageous step to stay Mr. William’s execution, and I ask that you make this decision permanent before leaving office tomorrow. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) has long been opposed to the death penalty in any case because it is a cruel, inhumane, and unnecessary punishment that has been applied in a racially disparate manner. However, above and beyond these general problems, there are compelling reasons to spare Mr. William’s life.”

Johnson said in addition to the DNA evidence, the death penalty is applied disproportionately to African Americans and that Williams may have lacked proper representation. The jury that convicted him was entirely white.

“Several studies have shown that the death penalty is more likely to be imposed when the victim is white," Johnson wrote. "In addition, racial discrimination in jury selection continues to occur in spite of court decisions forbidding the practice."

One such study from the University of North Carolina found that when homicides involve white victims, the defendant is seven times more likely to be sentenced to death if they are black. African Americans currently make up just 11 percent of Missouri's population, but fully a third of the state's death row inmates are black. Like Williams, almost half were convicted in St. Louis County by all-white juries.

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