Abolish the Death Penalty: A Horrific Practice
With the recent execution of Marcellus Williams, it is increasingly clear that the death penalty must be abolished permanently

It is hard to write this piece, and even more so because it is delayed. While I have been posting about the horrible situation involving the now-late Marcellus Williams, I have struggled to find the words to describe the situation and my utter contempt for his eventual fate. With his execution on Tuesday, September 23rd, I can’t help but feel furious. Not only with the justice system that killed a man who had substantial evidence to suggest he was innocent but also with myself for not dedicating an article to the issue at hand. Nonetheless, my hope is that this article, small in its significance as it is, and the story of Mr. Williams’ death will serve as a wake-up call to end the death penalty.
An Unjust Justice System
The justice system has long been bigoted and unfailing in its failure to uphold equality before the law. Whether it is through now abandoned approaches to law enforcement such as stop and frisk, but also in sentencing guidelines and other mechanisms of the law, the justice system has consistently failed people of color. Especially African Americans. The abuse of African Americans is such a pervasive problem that a 2023 report by the United Nations condemned the substantive differences in treatment for Black Americans. That report explained that “Black people in America are three times more likely to be killed by police than whites, and 4.5 times more likely to be incarcerated.”
The same system that upholds these disparities is the same system that brings that prejudiced and biased approach to the horrific practice we call the death penalty. A 2020 study found that killers of White people were over four times as likely to get the death penalty than killers of Black people and “… that 22 of the 972 defendants convicted of killing a white victim were executed, as compared with two of the 1,503 defendants convicted of killing a Black victim.” Previous examinations of the empirical literature have also found strong evidence to suggest that the race of a victim significantly impacted the likelihood of the alleged perpetrator getting the death penalty.
Between 1972 and January 1st, 2024, there have been 9,800 death sentences issued, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Of those sentences, 1,532 people were executed, and 179 were exonerated, or 1.32 percent were exonerated. Nearly 200 people who didn’t commit a crime, or at the very least not the one of which they were accused, were innocent. If they hadn’t been given a chance or support to prove their innocence, their blood would be on the hands of the states that continue this ridiculous practice. Even guilty pleas are not surefire guarantees of culpability. An estimated 18 percent of people who were later exonerated of wrongdoing pleaded guilty to a crime they didn’t commit.
In what decent country would anyone support a system that allows even one innocent person to be killed? This is especially critical to ask when the evidence strongly suggests that the system is operating under the bigoted assumption of Black guilt and White purity. Amid all of this, executions are starting to rise in frequency, jumping 64 percent in 2022, thanks to the Supreme Court’s willingness to allow these executions to take place at any cost.
The State-Sponsored Murder of Marcellus Williams
Marcellus Williams was a 55-year-old man convicted for the 1998 murder of Felicia Gayle, a local journalist. Numerous appeals against his 2001 sentence to death have been made and despite the victim’s family requesting that Williams not receive the death penalty. Additionally, DNA testing of the knife showed another unidentified person’s DNA was on the knife and not Williams'. Even worse is the fact during procedures to evaluate the new testing, it was determined that prior to Williams’ conviction, the knife was mishandled. This meant that the weapon was likely contaminated, making it nearly impossible for the state to provide any forensic evidence tying Williams to the murder.
Even as the prosecutor’s office worked to allow for a reevaluation of the evidence and hearing, Missouri Governor Jim Parsons and Attorney General Andrew Bailey went out of their way to see Mr. Williams be put to death. When Ms. Gayle’s family agreed to have the sentence against Williams reduced to life in prison, Attorney General Bailey rejected the agreement, and Governor Parsons refused to commute the sentence. The justice system would fail Mr. Williams one more time when the Supreme Court of the United States refused to intervene in his execution. It didn’t matter to him that the only witnesses against Williams were two unreliable witnesses who financially benefited from their testimony. The execution, according to the spirit of the justice system, must go on. So, Marcellus Williams was killed by the state of Missouri.
What Now?
Sadly, it is too late for Mr. Williams. The only thing that can be done now is to push for the only acceptable action here: the complete and total abolition of the death penalty. No state can be trusted with the power and many states already have abdicated that power. Despite this, there are still far too many states that claim a power they should never have had in the first place.
If there is to be any justice in this country, it is necessary and proper to not only pass federal legislation banning the practice but to pass a constitutional amendment ensuring its perpetual abolition. We owe it to Mr. Williams and all the people who have wrongly been accused of wrongdoing and to ourselves to end this barbaric and horrific practice that has no place in a decent society. It is time to kill the death penalty.