Murder of Felicia Gayle

Felicia "Lisha" Anne Gayle, 42, a former reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, was found dead in her University City, Missouri home on the evening of August 11, 1998. She had been stabbed as many as 43 times with a butcher's knife taken from her own kitchen, and was discovered by her husband, Dr. Daniel Picus. Police arriving around 8 p.m. found her in a fetal position, with defensive wounds to her hands and arms and a knife lodged in her neck. Items stolen from the home included her purse, jacket, and her husband's Macintosh computer. Investigators noted the crime occurred amid a burglary spree in the neighborhood.

In May 1999, Gayle's family offered a $10,000 reward for information. Two people, Henry Cole and Laura Asaro, subsequently identified Marcellus Williams as responsible. Cole, a former fellow inmate, said Williams had confessed to him and received a $5,000 reward; Asaro, Williams's girlfriend at the time, testified that Williams confessed to her, that she found Gayle's purse in his car, and that she saw scratches on his neck, blood on his shirt, and a laptop in his vehicle. A search of Williams's car recovered a Post-Dispatch ruler and calculator belonging to Gayle, and a man testified that Williams had sold him Gayle's stolen laptop. Prosecutors described the physical crime-scene evidence — a shoeprint, fingerprints, and hair — as inconclusive and not matching Williams; DNA on the knife did not match him either, and was later attributed to prosecution team members who had handled it after forensic testing.

Williams was convicted of first-degree murder in 2001 and sentenced to death. His appeals, including challenges to evidentiary rulings, jury instructions, and use of his prior criminal history, were rejected by the Missouri Supreme Court, which found sufficient aggravating circumstances and no abuse of discretion. An execution scheduled for 2015 did not proceed, and a 2017 execution date was halted by a last-minute stay from Governor Eric Greitens, who convened a Board of Inquiry to review new DNA evidence. That board was dissolved in June 2023 by Governor Mike Parson without issuing findings, and the execution stay was lifted.

In January 2024, St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell moved to vacate Williams's death sentence, citing independent DNA experts who unanimously concluded the male DNA on the murder weapon belonged to an investigator and prosecutor who had handled it, not Williams, along with concerns about jury selection and effectiveness of counsel. A hearing was set for August 21, 2024. On that date, Williams accepted an Alford plea to commute his sentence to life without parole, which prosecutors supported: the Missouri Supreme Court blocked the agreement the same day, and Missouri's Attorney General opposed the plea. His execution proceeded as scheduled on September 24, 2024, after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to intervene, with three justices noting they would have granted a stay. Williams, who had taken the name Khalifah after converting to Islam in prison, was executed by lethal injection at the Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center in Bonne Terre, Missouri.