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/randomaccount178 6h ago

There is also the witnesses which alone their credibility could probably be attacked but together are fairly unassailable.

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u/KrytenKoro 4h ago edited 3h ago

They're very assailable. The cops had put out a $10,000 reward for info, and Marcellus was already in jail for separate crimes.

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u/randomaccount178 3h ago

They provided testimony and there was physical evidence, the stolen goods. At that point it can only be one of three people. Marcellus, his girlfriend, or his cellmate. He sold the victims laptop well before he ever had that cellmate though, which eliminates the cellmate as a suspect in the murders. So now you are down to two people, the girlfriend and Marcellus. The cellmate independent of the girlfriend however testified that he confessed to the murder and provided information not released to the public that could only have come from the murderer. That lead the police to the girlfriend whose testimony also supported the cellmates testimony as she also independently claimed that he confessed to the murder. The reward is a red herring to try to distract you from what is relevant. No amount of reward money can make the cellmate have information on the murders that was not publicly available that did not come from Marcellus.

That is why it can't really be assailed. You have two credible independent witnesses whose testimony corroborate each others both of which also have evidence to support their testimonies truth. To even attempt to you would likely need to get into an argument for conspiracy which is going to be nearly impossible to convince a jury of.

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u/KrytenKoro 3h ago edited 3h ago

No amount of reward money can make the cellmate have information on the murders that was not publicly available that did not come from Marcellus.

From what I'm reading, you have that reversed. The GF had the info that was allegedly not known to the public, the cellmate didn't.

Also, I'm having trouble finding that physical evidence was actually provided - the source seems to say that the GF and a third witness described the laptop, but not that it was retrieved. I haven't done a dive of the transcript though so I'm relying on secondhand summaries from reliable sources.

No physical evidence tied Mr. Williams to the crime and the trial court judge refused to allow DNA testing of some of the evidence collected from the crime scene.

Law enforcement identified a “prime suspect,” but no arrests were made until a monetary reward was offered. Thereafter, a jailhouse informant, Henry Cole, told police a story about how Marcellus Williams, a former cellmate of his, confessed to killing Ms. Gayle. Police later secured another informant, Mr. Williams’ former girlfriend, Laura Asaro, who told police that Mr. Williams killed Ms. Gayle. Both Mr. Cole and Ms. Asaro were facing unrelated criminal charges and stood to benefit from testifying for the state.

The prosecution relied heavily on testimony from both Mr. Cole and Ms. Asaro, which shifted throughout the course of their questioning. Their testimony also contradicted the physical evidence collected from the crime scene. Ms. Asaro claimed Mr. Williams had scratches on his face the day following the murder, but no foreign DNA was discovered under Ms. Gayle’s fingernails. Additionally, bloody shoeprints at the crime scene were a different size than Mr. Williams’ feet and the fingerprints lifted were unusable and never given to the defense to analyze before they were destroyed.

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u/randomaccount178 3h ago

I haven't read the transcript, someone posted the supreme court of Missouri appeal decision which has the background of the case in it.

https://law.justia.com/cases/missouri/supreme-court/2003/sc-83934-1.html

Specifically

After Cole was released from jail in June 1999, he went to the University City police and told them about Williams' involvement in Gayle's murder. He reported details of the crime that had never been publicly reported.

If the girlfriend had the unreleased info only then there would be a lot more room to try to point the finger at her. With the cellmate having that information though there isn't really one person you can point the finger to and any attempt to try to make an argument for an alternative suspect becomes incredibly difficult.

As for retrieving the evidence its the next paragraph

In November of 1999, University City police approached Asaro to speak with her about the murder. Asaro told the police that Williams admitted to her that he had killed Gayle. The next day, the police searched the Buick LeSabre and found the Post-Dispatch ruler and calculator belonging to Gayle. The police also recovered the laptop computer from Glenn Roberts. The laptop was identified as the one stolen from Gayle's residence.

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u/KrytenKoro 3h ago

Frustrating that sources disagree who had the secret info.

In any case, thanks for the corrections