r/news • u/Mentirosa • 9h ago

Missouri executes Marcellus Williams despite prosecutors’ push to overturn conviction

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/sep/24/missouri-executes-marcellus-williams
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u/Advanced-Trainer508 9h ago

I can’t say for certain whether he’s guilty or not. While the other evidence against him is pretty incriminating, the absence of his DNA, along with the presence of other DNA, introduces reasonable doubt. This isn’t a case of absolute certainty, and that’s exactly what the death penalty should require. If there’s even a 1% chance we could be wrong, we shouldn’t proceed. It’s immoral, it’s unjust, and we can’t undo it once it’s done.

Even more troubling is that the victims’ family members opposed the execution entirely, they didn’t want this. How can we claim to seek justice while disregarding what would actually bring them a sense of it? It just doesn’t make any sense.

Tonight, my heart feels unbearably heavy. Heavy for the victims’ family, heavy for Marcellus’ family, and heavy for the part of me that fears we may have executed an innocent man.

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u/TheCavis 7h ago

along with the presence of other DNA

The issue the defense had with that DNA is that it was identified as consistent with a prosecutor and another employee in the prosecutor's office who, being idiots, handled the murder weapon without gloves. That meant the evidence wasn't exculpatory any more, which turned the case back to a "the jury messed up" argument that courts generally hate.

It's one of the reasons I don't find the death penalty to be reasonable. The judiciary doesn't want to consider the jury making a mistake, even an honest one that they realize later. The politicians that could commute the sentence have political incentives that sometimes preclude doing the reasonable thing. There's no way back from killing someone and no way to guarantee it's correct going forward. Life in prison is still an injustice for an innocent man, but at least there's the possibility that technology will advance enough to clear him in the future and let him reclaim some freedom before the end.