The State of Missouri put Marcellus Williams to death Tuesday, despite opposition from St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell and the victim’s family, the Associated Press reports. Williams was convicted of the murder of Lisha Gayle in 1998. Gayle was stabbed to death during a home burglary in which her purse and her husband’s laptop were stolen. The case received international attention due to concerns that Williams may have been innocent. According to The Innocence Project, the case against Williams depended heavily on two witnesses with legal and financial motives rendering their testimony unreliable. Questions were also raised relating to the forensic evidence in the case. The murder weapon appeared to be improperly handled by a staff member from the prosecutor’s office and there was a lack of physical evidence linking Williams to the crime scene.
In 2017, former Missouri Governor Eric Greitens paused Williams’ execution and appointed a board to investigate further. However, current Governor Mike Parson disbanded the board before it issued a final report. Just last month, a new plea deal was accepted by a judge between the Prosecuting Attorney and Williams vacating the death sentence and imposing life without the possibility of parole. However, the State Attorney General, Andrew Bailey, intervened, objecting to the plea and sending the controversy to the State Supreme Court. The State Supreme Court set aside the deal and ordered an evidentiary hearing. Williams raised issues pertaining to bias in jury selection and mishandling of the evidence at the hearing but was ultimately unsuccessful. In declining to delay the execution, Governor Parson stressed that no jury nor court at the trial or appellate level had found merit in Williams’ claims to innocence. Though three Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court voted to halt the execution, the Court denied the emergency request.
Outside of Missouri, four other states scheduled executions within the span of a week, an uncommonly high number, as the number of executions per year is trending down nationwide.
Read on for more criminal law news.
Mayor Eric Adams Indicted. A federal indictment against New York City Mayor Eric Adams was unsealed yesterday charging him with bribery, fraud, and soliciting illegal foreign campaign donations, the New York Times reports. According to federal prosecutors, Adams was “showered” with gifts by the Turkish government, receiving discounted Turkish Airlines tickets, meals, and hotel rooms. In exchange, he provided special favors, such as pressuring fire department officials to permit a new Turkish consulate building in Manhattan despite safety issues. The alleged illegal conduct spans ten years, going back to the time he was Brooklyn borough president.
Citizen-initiated charging and Trump. A nonprofit representing the Haitian community in Springfield, Ohio, initiated criminal charges against former president Donald Trump and his running mate, J.D. Vance, after the two candidates repeated false claims that immigrants in Springfield were eating pets (the debunked rumors have been traced to a post on X containing a triple-hearsay account of a “neighbor’s daughter’s friend”). The nonprofit alleges that Trump and Vance disrupted public services, made false alarms, and engaged in harassment and menacing by amplifying the false rumors. Readers of this blog may (or may not) find the criminal procedure nuances as fascinating as I do. North Carolina is one of a minority of states that, like Ohio, permit citizens, not just law enforcement officers, to initiate criminal charges. My colleague, Jeff Welty, covered the topic in this post, and the Criminal Justice Innovation Lab at SOG produced a briefing paper here. Whereas in North Carolina, the citizen swears out charges before a magistrate, in Ohio, the citizen makes a written submission to the prosecuting attorney and a court hearing is required before the case moves forward. As of today, the Springfield nonprofit and the community it represents await their court date, which has yet to be scheduled.
Attempted assassination case. BBC reports that federal prosecutors have secured an indictment against Ryan Routh for the attempted assassination of Donald Trump at Trump’s golf course in Florida. Coincidentally, U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon, the judge handling the classified documents prosecution against Donald Trump, was also assigned to the attempted assassination case where Trump is the victim. Her assignment to both matters was the result of a randomized selection process (notably, the Judicial Conference of the United States acted earlier this year, albeit in the civil litigation context, to strengthen the policy governing randomized case assignment).
Sexual abuse at juvenile detention facilities. A lawsuit filed this week in Illinois alleges sexual abuse at state juvenile detention centers, according to the Associated Press. A named victim states that guards physically beat him and threatened him with solitary confinement if he didn’t submit to forced sexual activity. A total of 667 people have alleged that they were victims of sex abuse in a series of lawsuits filed in the state since May of this year. Meanwhile, similar lawsuits alleging systemic sexual abuse in juvenile facilities have been filed in multiple states including Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, New Hampshire, California, and New York.
Pregnancy-related prosecutions. According to a report compiled by an advocacy group, Pregnancy Justice, in the year after Roe v. Wade was overturned, more than 200 people in the U.S. were prosecuted for conduct involving pregnancy. The Guardian reports that all but 10 of the recorded cases involved allegations of illegal drug use during the pregnancy. The substance use was charged under statutes criminalizing child abuse, neglect, or endangerment. Five of the cases involved conduct surrounding abortion, attempted abortion, or researching the prospect of an abortion. More than 100 of the cases occurred in Alabama. The annual nationwide total of pregnancy-related prosecutions is the highest yet. Some experts state that the report significantly undercounts the true number of cases.
Murder rate continues to decline. I last blogged about a significant decline in the murder rate nationwide in April, and new data released by the FBI shows the trend is continuing, according to the Brennan Center. The report covers all of 2023 and comprises data from police departments covering 94% of the national population. Preliminary data shows that the murder rate continues to decline in 2024. The violent crime rate in 2023 was down 3.5% to a level just above historic lows. Though theft is also down generally, car theft rates continue to rise significantly.
I hope everyone weathers the storm safely. See you next week.
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