r/politics • u/seanosul • 13h 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/WhyCantIStopReddit Missouri 13h ago

But no forensic evidence linked Williams to the murder weapon or crime scene, and as local prosecutors have renounced his conviction, the victim’s family and several trial jurors also said they opposed his execution.

This is so unbelievably fucked up.

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u/Technical_Bid990 13h ago

There should be no doubt when something as final as death is involved. This man seemed to have found some level of mental health in prison, turning to God and poetry. I can’t say if he was a good or bad person, but if I lived in Missouri, I’d want to be certain that if the state could legally execute me, I was 100% guilty. 

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u/WhyCantIStopReddit Missouri 13h ago

And this is why the death penalty should be abolished.

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u/purinsesu-piichi 11h ago

I used to be pro-death penalty with the mindset that if someone was 100% certainly guilty, like was seen in the act, then it was okay. Thing is that there's no way for the system to exist with 100% certainty. Humans are fallible, so our creations will always be fallible.

If even one innocent person is put to death, the whole thing has to go. And before anyone comes at me (it's happened before on this topic), I have a family member who was murdered. I do have skin in this game.

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u/Cant0thulhu 11h ago

Testimony from eye witnesses is basically the lowest form of evidence.

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u/WritestheMonkey 10h ago

One of the witnesses recanted. This is nothing more than a state not wanting to admit to wrongful incarceration because it costs them money. People would clutch their pearls if they had to accept that the judicial system is full of flaws, that cops get it wrong, that prosecutors can drop the ball, that judges can have ulterior motives. The governor dismissed a Board of Inquiry before it completed a report on Wallace's case. When Wallace sued, the governor tried to get the case dismissed but a judge thought it had merit. The governor pushed it up to the Missouri Supreme Court and pursueded them to dismiss it. The the AG pushed up his execution date.

Despicable corruption. Missouri's Governor Parson should face charges for this. Wallace's blood is on his hands... And I think Parson is proud of that.

Stuff like this happens too often. Laws need to change.

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u/Cant0thulhu 9h ago

Especially in ratfucked red states like missouri. It’ll be a cold day in hell before I recognize Missouri.

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u/parasyte_steve 9h ago

They just legalized chemical castration in Louisiana for cases of pedophilia. Like I get it but the fact that an innocent person could potentially get castrated over bad evidence or etc is simply unacceptable. And I do not trust the Louisiana legal system at all.

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u/MyNameIsAirl Iowa 5h ago

According to this NPR article chemical castration was already legal in Louisiana and some other states but the new law legalized surgical castration. It also says that they can't force it but it would add additional time to your sentence with no chance of parole.