As president, he would abolish ineffective, irreversible death penalty for federal crimes, push states to do same as 5 executions are set in 1 week
ATLANTA, GA. – Vehement death-penalty opponent Chase Oliver offers no quarter to those who killed Marcellus Williams, a Missouri man whose guilty verdict relied on faulty DNA evidence and witnesses potentially motivated by money.
“May he rest in peace, and may those who ignored the calls for stopping this never have a good night of sleep for the remainder of their lives,” says Oliver, 39, the Libertarian candidate for president.
Williams, 55, was killed by lethal injection on Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024, at a state prison in Bonne Terre, Mo. His execution is one of five set over a one-week period.
Oliver joined the list of those opposing Missouri’s execution of Marcellus Williams: The Midwest Innocence Project, the NAACP, Williams’ original defense attorney who had a simultaneous death case, the St. Louis County prosecutor, a judge, and the family of victim Lisha Gayle.
The flawed evidence was presented in a hearing last month, and Williams agreed to a no-contest plea to first-degree murder with life in prison without parole. This was not an admission of guilt, just a shift from death row. Both Judge Bruce Hilton and Gayle’s family signed off on this plea.
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey appealed. He took the case to the Missouri Supreme Court, which nullified the agreement and ordered the judge to proceed with an evidentiary hearing.
Gov. Mike Pearson allowed the execution, saying that it brought finality to a case that had “languished for decades, revictimizing Gayle’s family over and over again … No juror or judge has ever found Williams’ innocence claim to be credible.”
Gayle’s family said differently on the clemency petition: “The family defines closure as Marcellus being allowed to live. Marcellus’ execution is not necessary.”
Ahead of Tuesday’s execution, Oliver posted on X:
“I join the chorus of voices calling for a stay to this execution. Tomorrow will be too late.”
“Even the prosecutors in this case want to stop this execution. The AG in Missouri is ignoring these pleas.”
Background on the case
On Aug. 11, 1998, Lisha Gale was stabbed 43 times with a butcher’s knife during a robbery, when her purse and her husband’s laptop were stolen.
Williams’ girlfriend testified that he’d come home in a jacket covering a bloody shirt, and that she found the stolen items in a car. A cellmate of Williams – jailed on unrelated charges – said that Williams confessed to the killing. Williams’ attorneys said both witnesses were convicted of felonies and seeking a $10,000 reward.
DNA testing that was unavailable in 2001 did not show Williams’ DNA on the knife. The knife had been mishandled, and any DNA evidence that could point to the killer had been spoiled. In the wake of that flawed evidence, St. Louis Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell requested a new hearing to challenge Williams’ guilt.
The Midwest Innocence Project attorneys represented Williams at the Aug. 21, 2024 hearing, touting the flawed evidence as their leading reason to challenge the conviction. Williams’ trial attorney Joseph Green said that at the time of Williams’ trial, he also was simultaneously representing a man who’d killed his wife in a courthouse shooting.
Other questions about fairness include the jury, which included 1 black juror out of 12. According to the 2000 Census statistics for St. Louis County, 23% residents identified as black and 6% as 2 or more races. The prosecutor said he struck 3 potential jurors who were black, including 1 that he said looked like Williams.
Other executions
Marcellus Williams’ is 1 of 5 executions set for a 1-week span, the most since 2003.
South Carolina: Freddie Owens was killed Friday, Sept. 20, by lethal injection. He was on Death Row for the killing of a convenience store clerk during a robbery in 1997. His execution was delayed because prison officials couldn’t get drugs needed for lethal injection.
Texas: Travis Mullis was killed Tuesday, Sept. 24 by lethal injection. Mullis, with a long history of mental illness, waived his right to appeal the death sentence in the killing of his 3-month-old son in January 2008.
Alabama: Alan Miller is set to be executed on Thursday, Sept. 26, in the nation’s second execution by nitrogen gas. He was given a reprieve in 2022 when officials tried to execute him and were unable to connect an intravenous line. He was convicted of shooting 3 men in back-to-back workplace shootings in 1999.
Oklahoma: Emmanuel Littlejohn is scheduled for lethal injection on Thursday, Sept. 26, for his role in the shooting death of a convenience-store owner during a robbery. Littlejohn admits to the robbery, but says he did not file the fatal shot. In August, the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board voted 3-2 to recommend to Gov. Kevin Stitt that a clemency is appropriate.
What Chase Oliver would do as president
Oliver opposes the death penalty. In too many instances, the government has carried out an execution and later evidence shows that the convicted were innocent of their crimes. There is no reversal of death, nor any compensation to make whole those murdered by the state.
The death penalty does not deter crime, and the act itself is both cruel and does nothing to restore what was lost by the victims.
Oliver would immediately abolish the death penalty for all federal crimes. Not only are mistakes sometimes made that are not discovered until the execution has been carried out, but prosecutors often use the threat of the penalty as a method for extracting confessions in exchange for more lenient sentencing.
This presents ethical concerns, including innocent suspects confessing to crimes they did not commit to escape the needle, the chamber, or the chair.
He would instruct federal prosecutors to look for other penalties on a case-by-case basis, and he would use the presidency as a bully-pulpit to push states to revisit their own policies.
“The death penalty is an outdated, ineffective form of punishment that fails to deliver justice. It disproportionately impacts marginalized communities, risks executing innocent people, and does nothing to deter crime,” Oliver says.
“The moral cost is too high, and we must evolve toward systems that value rehabilitation and human dignity. It’s time to end the cycle of violence and abolish the death penalty once and for all.”
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Opposition to death penalty is under CRIMINAL JUSTICE REFORM
https://apnews.com/article/missouri-execution-marcellus-williams-8be20e2f252992610a30fa0cfef4185a
https://apnews.com/article/marcellus-williams-missouri-death-row-f7b3b4257c8a18542a6686d810472646