Crime
Missouri death row inmate agrees to new guilty plea in plea deal that calls for life in prison without possibility of parole
CLAYTON, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri death row inmate withdrew his claim of innocence Wednesday and filed a new plea of not guilty as part of a plea agreement in search of a change to his sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
However, the Missouri Attorney General’s Office opposes the new sentence and intends to appeal in order to allow Marcellus Williams’s execution scheduled for September 24 to go ahead.
The complicated turn of events got here on the day that St. Louis County District Judge Bruce Hinton was to oversee a hearing requested by prosecutor Wesley Bell to overturn Williams’ first-degree murder conviction in the 1998 slaying of Lisha Gayle. Bell cited DNA testing, unavailable on the time of the crime, that found one other person’s DNA — not Williams’ — on the murder weapon.
After a protracted delay with lawyers meeting behind closed doors, Matthew Jacober, a special prosecutor with the St. Louis County District Attorney’s Office, announced that even newer DNA tests released Monday showed contamination from the handling of the gun by a former deputy prosecutor and investigator. The contaminated evidence made it inconceivable to prove that the killer was another person.
“The murder weapon was used without proper procedures,” Jacober said. The misuse occurred several years before Bell took office.
Williams agreed to an Alford plea, which isn’t an admission of guilt but acknowledges there’s enough evidence to convict him. Under an agreement with St. Louis County prosecutors, Williams entered the plea Wednesday. He shall be sentenced Thursday — the agreement calls for life in prison without the possibility of parole. Williams also agreed not to appeal.
“Marcellus Williams is an innocent man, and nothing in today’s plea agreement changes that fact,” Williams’ attorney, Tricia Bushnell, said in an announcement. She noted that Gayle’s family supports overturning the death penalty and that the guilty plea “brings some finality to the family.”
But an appeal isn’t any guarantee Williams won’t be executed. Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey is appealing to the Missouri Supreme Court as he seeks to proceed with the execution, arguing that the district court lacks the authority to overturn the state Supreme Court’s decision to set an execution date.
“Throughout the legal games, the defense created a false narrative of innocence to protect a convicted murderer from the death penalty and advance their political goals,” Bailey said in an announcement. “Because of the defense’s failure to exercise due diligence in reviewing evidence that supposedly supported their case, the victims have been forced to relive their terrible loss for the past six years.”
Williams, 55, was hours away from execution in August 2017 when then-Gov. Eric Greitens, a Republican, granted a stay after DNA tests, unavailable on the time of the killing, showed that DNA on the knife matched another person, not Williams.
This evidence prompted Bell to reconsider the case.
“This previously unheard evidence, coupled with the relative paucity of other credible evidence to support guilt, and the additional considerations of ineffective counsel and racial discrimination in jury selection, cast an inexorable doubt upon Mr. Williams’ conviction and sentence,” Bell’s motion stated.
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Williams, who’s black, was convicted and sentenced to death by a jury of 11 white people and one black person.
A 2021 Missouri law allows prosecutors to file a motion to overturn a conviction they imagine was unfair. The law led to the exoneration of three men who spent many years in prison, including Christopher Dunn last month.
The Missouri Supreme Court set an execution date of June 4, hours after ruling that Gov. Mike Parsons, a Republican, had the correct to disband a commission of inquiry convened by Greitens after he halted his execution in 2017.
The inquiry, made up of five retired judges, never issued a ruling or reached a conclusion on whether the new DNA evidence exonerated Williams. Parson disbanded the commission in June 2023, saying it was time to “move on.”
In addition to Dunn, who spent 34 years behind bars for the death of a 15-year-old St. Louis boy, a Missouri law allowing prosecutors to challenge convictions led to the discharge of two other men — Kevin Strickland and Lamar Johnson. Bailey was not attorney general when Strickland’s case went to trial, but his office opposed overturning the convictions of Dunn and Johnson.
Bailey also opposed efforts to overturn the conviction of Sandra Hemme, who spent 43 years in prison for murder, although that case was selected appeal fairly than by a prosecutor. A judge ruled in June that Hemme needs to be freed. Bailey has filed multiple appeals to try to keep her behind bars, but Hemme was released in July.
Strickland was freed in 2021 after serving greater than 40 years for three slayings in Kansas City after a judge ruled he was wrongly convicted in 1979. In 2023, a St. Louis judge overturned Johnson’s conviction. He had served nearly 28 years for a killing he all the time maintained he didn’t commit.
Williams was the primary death row inmate to have his claim of innocence heard by a judge for the reason that 2021 law was passed. Several other individuals who have been exonerated showed up in the courtroom to support him, including one other former death row inmate, Joseph Amrine, who spent 17 years on death row before being freed in 2003 after the Missouri Supreme Court ruled there was no credible evidence linking him to the killing of one other inmate.
Prosecutors in Williams’ trial said he broke into Gayle’s suburban St. Louis home on Aug. 11, 1998, heard water running in the shower and located a big butcher knife. When Gayle went downstairs, she was stabbed 43 times. Her purse and her husband’s laptop were stolen. Gayle, who was white, was a social employee who had previously worked as a reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Authorities say Williams stole the jacket to hide blood on his shirt. Williams’ girlfriend asked him why he was wearing the jacket on a hot day. The girlfriend said she later saw the laptop in the automotive and that Williams sold it a day or two later.
Prosecutors also cited testimony from Henry Cole, who shared a St. Louis cell with Williams in 1999 while Williams was imprisoned on unrelated charges. Cole told prosecutors that Williams had confessed to the killing and provided details about it.
Williams’ attorneys responded that each the girl and Cole are convicted felons with a $10,000 reward for their killing.
Crime
Family of Texas Teen, accused of a deadly stab of another teenager on the track, collected over $ 150,000 via the online fundraiser
The collection of money for a teenager accused of a deadly stabbing of another teenager during a meeting at the Texas track last week has almost USD 200,000.
Launched by the family of Carmelo Anthony, a 17-year-old from Texas, who’s accused of stabbing Austin Metcalf, also 17, during an intensive meeting between them, Dajndo Fundraiser reached USD 160,000 from Monday morning.
According to Anthony’s lawyer, Deric Walpole, his client demands self -defense on this matter. Talking with NBC Dallas-Fort Worth On Friday, other than the prison, wherein Anthony was detained, Walpole said: “I know that my client said it was a self -defense. I have no reason not to believe it, but I have to develop facts, talk to people and find out what is happening before I made some statements about what I think.”
He added: “I have no reason to think that it was not a self -defense at the moment.”
On Wednesday, April 2, around 10 am local time, it’s claimed that Anthony stabbed Metcalf after Metcalf asked to depart a specific area during the rain delay at a sports event at the Kuykeyndall stadium in Frisco, in accordance with the NBC Dalls-Fort value. Anthony, a competitor in a competitive team, apparently sat under the tent of the Metcalf team to avoid rainfall when Metcalf asked him to depart. When Anthony didn’t follow Metcalf in order that he wouldn’t touch him, allegedly Metcalf caught Anthony’s arm, leaning Anthony, using a knife from a backpack to stab Metcalf in his chest from escaping.
Metcalf suffered a stinging wound in his heart and was recognized as deceased at the scene of the incident, despite the attempts to save lots of his twin brother.
“I put my hand on (his chest), tried to stop (bleeding), grabbed his head and looked into his eyes. I just saw his soul. And this also took my soul,” said Twin Hunter Metcalfa Fox News.
Anthony was arrested and accused of killing the first degree, and is currently being detained in the Collin County prison for a bond of USD 1,000,000, which his lawyer is trying to cut back. He hopes to interrogate bonds this week.
Teenager Apparently he said the police“It is not alleged, I did it” that he was lively in self -defense and asked if Metcalf can be tremendous. Anthony’s father said The New York Post That his son was “provoked”.
“He was not an aggressor. He was not the one who started him,” said Andrew Anthony, adding: “Everyone has already adopted their assumptions about my son, but he is not what they make him.”
He explained that his son was a “good child” who works two works and maintains 3.7 GPs.
“I feel sorry for other parents and family, and words cannot explain how both (families) affected this tragedy,” he noted.
The online collection of money causes “false” narratives circulating after the consequence.
“The widespread narrative is false, unfair and harmful. As a family of faith, we are deeply grateful for all your support in this difficult period. Your prayers and help mean more for us than ever,” we read a fundraiser.
Collecting money on Gofundme In the case of family costs and Metcalf’s funeral, they brought 95% of their goal.
(Tagstransate) news
Richmond, Virginia – June 12: photo of George Floyd expected to the statue of confederate general Robert Lee on June 12, 2020 in Richmond, Virginia. Last week, the governor of Virginia Ralph Northam ordered the removal of Lee’s general statue as soon as possible, but court proceedings temporarily stopped these plans. Protests proceed in cities across the country after the death of George Floyd, who died in police detention in Minneapolis on May 25. (Photo eze amos/getty images)
Giving police departments equipment to military class does not reduce crime or increase safety based on two independent research. Studies appear in the course of the ongoing conversation concerning the importance of “rejecting the police” as a method.
IN “Police demilitarization and brutal crime“, Kenneth Lwande, a professor on the University of Michigan, questioned the claim that the military weapon exchange program reduced the crime rate, assaulting police officers and the variety of complaints towards police officers.
Finding problems in previously published data Lwande focused on the information available after ordering the Obama administration from 2015, required to demlate local police agencies. Answering public indignation after exposing the militarized police in Ferguson, Obama’s administration Forbade some Sales of military equipment to the police as a part of the controversial program 1033. Trump’s administration reversed this policy in 2017.
IN interview In the case of ABC, Lwande explained that earlier research found that the transfer of military equipment to police plots served as deterrent. But from his evaluation, evidence does not confirm such conclusions. “It’s just not an accurate record,” said Lwande. “[Prior studies] They clearly suggested that by transferring military police equipment, he would stop criminals from committing crimes. “
Published in the character of human behavior, London magazine, research emphasizes the reaper of Trump’s administration on potentially “unbelievable” data when making decisions about withdrawing restrictions from Obama’s time. After assessing previous research, Lipowde found that publicly published data utilized in previous studies were filled with inaccuracies. Earlier evaluation did not control the equipment that was transferred between agencies, unused or otherwise inoperable. In addition, Lwande did not find any evidence that the demilitarizing law enforcement authorities led to an increase in crime.
Program 1033, managed by the Defense Logistics Agency, is one in every of several ways through which law enforcement authorities acquire military assessment equipment. Established in 1997 as a part of the Act on authorization for national defense, is estimated Program 1033 has transferred over $ 7 billion in military equipment into $ 8,000 across the country. The program was originally created for the forces of “counteracting terrorism”, but later prolonged to cover all of the activities of law enforcement agencies.
Covering with the national uprisings this summer, several members of the Chamber introduced laws to eliminate the 1033 program in June. The Black Lives movement also published Act Breathe Act, a comprehensive legislative proposal, including financing specific politicians and the abolition of the police. Section I of the proposed respiratory act requires the opening of the 1033 program in its entirety.
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