‘A kind and thoughtful man.’
2 min read
Williams’ execution was widely denounced on Tuesday evening.
Derrick Johnson, NAACP president, said Missouri had “lynched another innocent Black man”. Missouri congresswoman Cori Bush said the state had failed Williams, adding: “We have a moral imperative to abolish this racist and inhumane practice.” And Bell said: “Marcellus Williams should be alive … This outcome did not serve the interests of justice.”
Bushnell, Williams’ attorney from the Midwest Innocence Project, praised Williams’ “evocative poetry” and “service to his family and his community”, saying he had been a “kind and thoughtful man, who spent his last years supporting those around him in his role as imam”.
“While he yearned to return home, he … worked hard to move beyond the anger, frustration and fear of wrongful execution, channeling his energy into his faith and finding meaning and connection through Islam. The world will be a worse place without him,” she said.
Williams’ public defenders said the governor had “utterly ignored” the victim’s family, adding in a statement: “Khaliifah was an inspiration. We aspire to his level of faith, to his integrity, and to his complete devotion to the people in his life.”
Michelle Smith, co-director of Missourians to Abolish the Death Penalty, who considered Williams a mentor, said in an interview before the execution that she hoped his case would help the public understand that “capital punishment doesn’t work”.
“I know people who say: ‘We shouldn’t kill innocent people, but other than that, I believe in the death penalty.’ But if you believe in the system at all, that means you’re OK with innocent people being killed, because the system isn’t perfect. It is going to kill innocent people.”
Since 1973, at least 200 people sentenced to death have been exonerated, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Robin Maher, the group’s executive director, said she was unaware of another case in which someone was executed after a sitting prosecutor objected and confessed to constitutional errors that undermined the conviction.
Williams’ execution is one of five scheduled across the US in a one-week period. On Friday, South Carolina executed a man days after the state’s main witness recanted his testimony. On Tuesday, the state of Texas executed Travis Mullis, 38, who waived his right to appeal his death sentence for killing his three-month-old son in 2008. His attorney said he suffered a lifetime of “profound mental illness”, but was a “redeemed man” who accepted responsibility for his crime.
Culled from www.theguardian.com
