How You Can Help Save Marcellus Williams and Kill the Death Penalty

Last week South Carolina executed Khalil Allah, and this week Missouri plans to execute Marcellus Williams—despite DNA evidence proving both men innocent

If we truly care about equal justice under the Constitution, we must abolish the death penalty nationwide. Last week South Carolina executed an innocent man, and this week Missouri is about to follow suit. These executions do not make our country safer or more just—the enforce tyranny. It is long past time to kill the death penalty in the United States. Let’s Address This.

The execution of an innocent man — Khalil Divine Black Sun Allah

Last week South Carolina executed a person for the first time in 13 years, killing Khalil Divine Black Sun Allah, 46, by lethal injection. In 1997 when Khalil was 19, he was convicted of armed robbery and murder. What seems like an open and shut case is anything but, and all the evidence points to the undeniable fact that South Carolina executed an innocent man. The Guardian reports the following facts:

• Prosecutors had no forensic evidence connecting Allah to the shooting.

• Surveillance footage at the store showed two masked men with guns, but they were not identifiable.

• The main witness, Steven Golden, signed a bombshell affidavit recanting his testimony, saying Allah “is not the person who shot Irene Graves” and “was not present” during the robbery. Golden’s declaration said he had been high when police questioned him days after the robbery, and that he had been pressured into writing a statement blaming Allah.

• Golden agreed to plead guilty and testify when prosecutors assured him he would not face the death penalty or a life sentence – a deal not disclosed to the jury.

Despite zero forensic or eye witness evidence connecting Khalil to the shooting, and despite the primary witness recanting his testimony, and despite the jury being kept in the dark about all of this evidence exonerating Khalil—South Carolina executed him anyway. This isn’t justice. This is tyranny.

The Rev Hillary Taylor on Friday protests against the execution of Khalil Divine Black Sun Allah. Photograph: Chris Carlson/AP

Save Marcellus Williams from execution

An Innocence Project Petition calls on everyone to call Missouri Governor Parson at 417-373-3400 and urge him to stop the execution of Marcellus Williams (55) before it is too late. Williams was convicted of killing Felicia Gayle in 1995. And similar to the case of Khalil Allah, DNA evidence proves Williams is innocent. Moreover, the informants used by the government to convict Williams both emerged unreliable and compromised. As CNN reports:

Williams was convicted on the testimony of two unreliable informants facing their own legal troubles and further incentivized by $10,000 in reward money.

One might think the above claims are from Williams’ defense attorneys. Instead, they are from state prosecutors. The state prosecutors themselves demand a stay of execution so they can introduce the full context of evidence to prove Williams’ innocence. It is rare for defense lawyers and prosecuting lawyers to agree that a defendant is innocent of wrongdoing, but despite that reality in Williams’ case—the state of Missouri is still planning to execute Williams. Once again, proceeding with the execution of an innocent man is something to be expected out of a dictatorship, not from a democracy. As you read this, please pause and call Missouri Governor Parson at 417-373-3400 and urge him to stop the execution of Marcellus Williams.

Marcellus Williams. (Image: Courtesy of Marcellus Williams’ legal team)

We must kill the death penalty in America

As of September 2024, 27 states still permit the death penalty. Those states are Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming. Below, I address the criticisms of abolishment, and debunk five of the most common myths cited in support of capital punishment.

Claim: We know for certain that innocent people are not convicted or put to death, and if they are, it is a tiny and insignificant number.

Unfortunately, we know the opposite is true. Since 1973 alone:

…at least 197 people who had been wrongly convicted and sentenced to death in the U.S. have been exonerated.

In the modern era, America has executed roughly 1500 people for capital crimes.

With 197 known exonerations—solely because additional investigations were performed—that suggests the horrifying fact that at least 1 out of every 9 people executed were actually innocent. That is an 11% error rate. We wouldn’t tolerate that error rate in any other scenario. Imagine if on your next flight the pilot got on the intercom and announced there’s an 11% chance the plane won’t work once it’s in flight. Or an 11% chance a physician misdiagnoses cancer? Why then, would we tolerate an 11% error rate for the death penalty, when even 1 wrongful execution is 1 too many. This is simply unconscionable and is the antithesis of justice. We must do better, and that begins by abolishing the death penalty nationwide.

Daniel Gwynn, who was convicted of first-degree murder in 1994, was finally exonerated after 30 years in 2024. [Credit: 6abc Philadelphia]

Claim: The death penalty is a deterrent to violent crime.

On the contrary, study after study shows no link between the presence or abolishment of the death penalty and the rate of violent crime historically punished with the death penalty.

The Death Penalty Information Center, which collects studies on this topic, reports:

The death penalty affects only a tiny percentage of even those who commit murder. Its effect is very difficult to pinpoint, and the National Academy of Sciences has concluded that past studies have neither proven nor disproven a deterrent effect.

In short, the claim that the practice deters violent crime is just that—a claim. No actual evidence exists to support this assumption.

Claim: The victims of violent crime won’t see justice if the death penalty is repealed.

Let’s be clear. For the victims and families of violent crime, especially involving murder, nothing can bring back a life lost. No words or actions exist to remedy their pain. That’s why it’s so much more important we recognize that execution and justice are two different things altogether, and we cannot make the mistake of conflating them.

Enacting the death penalty won’t bring back a life lost to a horrific crime. Once that crime is committed, however, society can ensure the culprit is prevented from committing further harm. Families of victims can and should pursue restitution, damages, and financial compensation for the loss of their loved one—and receive them quickly.

Meanwhile, cases often take years or even decades. That leaves the lives of the victim’s families and the culprit’s families in limbo. Instead, the culprit should face swift accountability with prison. That allows victim families to move on without having to relive trauma with ongoing court cases. But speaking of justice, as I iterate below, given how many innocent people are sentenced to death, justice mandates abolishment to prevent the wrongful conviction and execution of the innocent.

Claim: It is a waste of taxpayer dollars to house, cloth, and feed a violent criminal until they die in prison.

In reality, death penalty cases cost about 48% more than the cost of sentencing someone to life in prison. Likewise:

A New Jersey study found, between 1983 and 2005, taxpayers paid $253 million more for the death penalty system than for a system with life without parole as its maximum sentence.

In short, if cost truly is the concern, then life in prison is far more efficient a use of taxpayer funds than is the death penalty. 

Claim: The death penalty is the great equalizer, applied fairly across economic and racial class.

On the contrary, the death penalty is one of the most grotesque examples of racially and economically discriminatory application of the law. For example, of the 173 exonerated former death row inmates, 91 are Black. Put another way, Black Americans are only 13% of the population, but were 53% of those wrongly convicted of a capital offense. Moreover, of those on death row, 42% are Black, once again demonstrating the racial bias in our legal system. In states like California, for example, the death penalty has not been abolished but is now in a moratorium, in part by evidence that Black defendants are 8.7X more likely to be sentenced to death than are white defendants for the exact same crimes. This racial disparity in California is not the exception nationwide, but the norm—and that’s truly frightening.

Likewise, while the wealthy can afford world class legal representation and avoid the penalty, this is a punishment disproportionately reserved for the poor and destitute. Such an unjust system cannot be allowed to continue.

In conclusion:

It is no wonder that Americans are committed to ending this practice. Polling shows that more than 60% of Americans support life in prison over the death penalty. It is a shame, therefore, that despite overwhelming support from the American people, and despite the ample evidence demonstrating the death penalty is unjust and does not make our nation safer, 27 states still permit capital punishment. We must embrace the movement to end the death penalty in America, nationwide, and better fulfill our Constitutional promise of equal justice under the law.

It’s long past due we embrace this opportunity for justice.