Missouri and Texas executed inmates on Tuesday, part of a wave of executions that began last week and is anticipated to continue in the days ahead.
A Missouri man on death row was killed for the savage 1998 murder of a lady inside her home, signaling the start of a string of executions across multiple states over the next few days.
Marcellus Williams, 55, died by lethal injection shortly after the United States Supreme Court dismissed his request for intervention. Williams was executed for the 1998 murder of Lisha Gayle, a social worker and former newspaper reporter who was stabbed over 40 times during a burglary at her St. Louis home.
His lawyers argued that the state supreme court should halt his execution due to purported procedural irregularities in jury selection and the prosecution’s handling of the murder weapon.
Wesley Bell, the prosecuting attorney for St. Louis County, had tried to overturn Williams’ sentence, raising concerns about his culpability.
Gayle, 42, was a social worker and a former St. Louis Post-Dispatch journalist. Prosecutors at Williams’ trial claimed he broke into her home on August 11, 1998, heard the shower running, and discovered a huge butcher knife.
Gayle was stabbed 43 times when she arrived downstairs. Her handbag and her husband’s laptop have been taken.
Gayle’s relatives approved an arrangement last month between the St. Louis County prosecutor’s office and Williams’ attorneys to commute the sentence to life in prison. However, following an appeal from Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s office, the state Supreme Court overturned the accord.
On Monday, Republican Gov. Mike Parson and the Missouri Supreme Court both dismissed Williams’ attempts to avoid his execution.
Travis Mullis was pronounced dead at 7:01 p.m. at the Texas State Penitentiary in Huntsville for the murder of his 3-month-old baby. Mullis, 38, was sentenced to death for trampling his son Alijah to death in January 2008.
Mullis, 21, was accused by prosecutors of driving to nearby Galveston with his son after a quarrel with his fiancée. Mullis had parked his automobile and sexually raped his son. Mullis began strangling his son as the infant began crying hysterically, investigators say, before dragging him out of the car and stamping on his skull.
The child’s body was discovered along the side of the road. Mullis left Texas but eventually surrendered to authorities in Philadelphia. Shawn Nolan, one of his attorneys, stated that he had no plans to file any further appeals before the execution.
He informed an appeals court that Mullis had been treated for “profound mental illness” since he was three years old, had been sexually molested as a youngster, and was “severely bipolar.” The United States Supreme Court has barred the use of the death penalty for intellectually handicapped people, but not for individuals suffering from serious mental illnesses.
More executions were set to take place in Oklahoma and Alabama. South Carolina executed on Friday.