Missouri: Execution would violate international law

[Tilly lavenas]

Dear Friends

Please send this letter or in your own  words as soon as possible. Marcellus Williams, who is scheduled to die on Sept 24, was convicted of murder on specious evidence. For example: the perpetrator left behind a crime scene with much forensic evidence but none of it tied Marcellus to the murder. At the 2001 trial, the prosecutor dismissed six of the seven Black would-be jurors. The jury comprised 11 white people and one Black person.  Thanks!  Tilly & Guy

Governor Michael L. Parson 

Capitol Building

Room 216. PO Box 720 

Jefferson City, Missouri 65102

Webform: https://governor.mo.gov/contact-us 

Dear Governor Parson

I’m writing on behalf of Marcellus Williams, who is due to be executed on September 24. This is despite the efforts of the St Louis County Prosecuting Attorney to have the conviction vacated. 

There are serious concerns regarding the soundness of the evidence used to convict Marcellus. The prosecution’s case relied primarily on testimony of two informant witnesses whose family and friends signed affidavits that both had a history of lying to seek leniency in their own cases.

The UN Human Rights Committee has said: “The execution of a person whose guilt has not been established beyond reasonable doubt constitutes an arbitrary deprivation of life”. 

I urge you to grant clemency and to commute Marcellus Williams’s death sentence. 

Yours sincerely, 

For more information about Amnesty’s Urgent Action 81/24, 13 September: https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/amr51/8530/2024/en/