death penalty

For nearly 25 years, Marcellus Williams has maintained his innocence in the murder of a St. Louis woman named Felicia Gayle. A plea deal that would have saved him from execution in less than a month and changed his sentence to life in prison was recently pulled by a judge.

A St. Louis County circuit judge accepted a deal that will keep Marcellus Williams in prison for life without parole. But late Wednesday, the Missouri Supreme Court granted a request from Attorney General Andrew Bailey to temporarily block the agreement.

Marcellus Williams’ execution was put on hold in 2017 after new DNA evidence came to light. But Missouri Gov. Mike Parson says there’s not enough evidence to postpone it further.

A Missouri man could be executed this fall for a crime he says he didn’t commit. How flawed is the evidence tying him to this crime, and what efforts have been taken to exonerate him?

Brian Dorsey is set to be executed by the state of Missouri today. Gov. Mike Parson denied his request for clemency despite support from corrections officers and a retired Missouri Supreme Court judge. Dorsey was convicted of killing his cousin and her husband in central Missouri, but his defense team says the original trial lawyers had conflicts of interest.

Gov. Mike Parson on Monday confirmed the state will carry out the scheduled execution of Brian Dorsey on Tuesday, April 9. More than 150 people spoke out in support of sparing Dorsey’s life, including over 70 corrections officers and a retired Missouri Supreme Court judge. Dorsey was convicted of murdering his cousin and her husband in 2006.

More than 150 people have called for Gov. Mike Parson to grant Brian Dorsey clemency — including corrections officers, Republican state representatives, jurors, and the Missouri Supreme Court judge who upheld Dorsey’s conviction and death sentence in 2009.

Despite the U.S. Supreme Court ruling the practice unconstitutional, legislation from state Sen. Mike Moon’s, R-Ash Grove, would allow the death penalty in non-homicide cases.

Hypoxia is the medical term for when there is insufficient oxygen in the body. Kansas hasn't executed someone since 1965, and Attorney General Kris Kobach is pushing to legalize the method first used in Alabama this January. Critics call it cruel and akin to suffocation.

Because Gov. Mike Parson dissolved a board of inquiry established in 2017, the Missouri Supreme Court is free to set an execution date for Marcellus Williams, even if St. Louis County Prosecutor Wesley Bell has not yet finished his review of the case. Williams has always maintained his innocence.

Kyle Flack was sentenced to death in 2016 after he was convicted of killing three adults and a child. He had argued police violated his right to remain silent during interrogations.

Twenty years ago, Bowling Green Rep. Chad Perkins thought the death penalty was a good idea. Now, he's the sponsor of a bill seeking to end the practice in Missouri, which was just one of five states to carry out executions last year.