“As a result, this generation will be charged with the blood of all the prophets that has been shed since the foundation of the world, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the sanctuary.
Yes, I tell you, all of it will be charged to this generation. Woe to you experts in the law! For you have taken away the key to knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering.”—Luke, Chapter 11, Verses 50-52, Berean Standard Bible
Marcellus “Khaliifah” Williams no longer walks among us. He was a fellow Muslim and put to death by the state of Missouri despite evidence showing he was not guilty of a murder he served 24 years on death row for.
Pleas from lawyers, public petitions, a county prosecutor, the family of the victim, and a host of appeals to stop the execution did not move Governor Mike Parsons, who lifted a stay of execution put in place by a previous governor. The NAACP denounced the state of Missouri killing as a lynching.
“A Black man convicted of killing a White woman, Mr. Williams maintained his innocence until the very end. Tonight, Missouri executed an innocent man. Our hearts are with the family and friends of Marcellus Williams and Felicia Gayle, who have suffered unimaginable loss and trauma,” said the Innocence Project, which investigates cases looking for wrongful convictions and seeks exonerations.
“Mr. Williams’ story echoes that of too many others caught in our country’s broken criminal legal system. His conviction was based on the testimony of two eyewitnesses who were paid for their testimony.
No DNA evidence linked him to the crime. And the current St. Louis county prosecuting attorney acknowledged that errors made by the trial prosecutors—including mishandling the murder weapon and intentionally excluding Black prospective jurors in violation of the Constitution—contributed to a wrongful conviction.”
Still, the Missouri Attorney General’s Office doggedly pushed for the Sept. 24 final lethal injection and opposed clemency, which Gov. Parson denied. While the U.S. Supreme Court did not stay the execution, Justices Sotomayor, Jackson, and Kagan argued the state-sponsored killing should be halted.
On June 29, Gov. Parson lifted the stay, though DNA evidence proved someone else committed the crime, said lawyers for Imam Khaliifah. “Gov. Parson terminated a board consisting of five former judges appointed to examine the case of Mr. Williams, lifting the stay instituted by then Gov. Eric Greitens minutes before Mr. Williams’ scheduled execution in 2017,” they added. That board, which was empaneled to consider mercy, apparently was never allowed to render a decision.
“Khaliifah is a kind and thoughtful man, who spent his last years supporting those around him in his role as Imam. We will remember him for his deeply evocative poetry and his love for and service to his family and his community.
While he yearned to return home, he is a thoughtful man who has worked hard to move beyond the anger, frustration, and fear of wrongful execution, channeling his energy into his faith and finding meaning and connection through Islam. The world will be a worse place without him,” said the Innocence Project.
The Midwest Innocence Project noted, “In 2016, DNA testing proved he was not the source of the DNA left on the murder weapon. That DNA belongs to an unknown male. Yet, no court has ever considered all of this evidence together. Mr. Williams, therefore, has sat on death row for decades as punishment for a crime someone else committed.”
“Even though this murder occurred in the middle of the day and neighbors were out and about, no one saw Mr. Williams anywhere near Ms. Gayle’s house. Police collected hairs found near Ms. Gayle’s body and found bloody footprints outside the house, however, Mr. Williams was excluded as the source of the hairs and as the source of the bloody footprints.
No forensic evidence ties Mr. Williams to the crime, and the state has offered no motive regarding why Mr. Williams would have committed this crime,” the Midwest Innocence Project said.
The 1998 murder of Ms. Gayle, a former St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter, was brutal and bloody. She was stabbed 43 times in her own home. A kitchen knife was left protruding from her neck.
“Two years later, Mr. Williams was convicted of the first-degree murder, robbery, and burglary of Ms. Gayle. Although no physical evidence or crime scene evidence connected him to the crime and the state presented no motive, his conviction primarily relied upon the inconsistent testimonies of two incentivized witnesses, whose statements were inconsistent with the crime scene evidence, with their own prior statements, and with each other,” the Midwest Innocence Project noted.
“According to the National Registry of Exonerations, incentivized witness testimony has contributed to 14 percent of death penalty cases that later led to a DNA exoneration. The two incentivized witnesses in this case were motivated by the reward money and favorable treatment in their own criminal cases,” the organization said.
Justice has again been denied us in the courts and the world of the White man, but his judgment is not the final judgment. The final judgment is with Allah (God) who promises in the Bible to bring upon this generation all of the blood of the righteous, from Abel, the first, to all who follow.
The Divine Supreme Being is well able to execute His punishment as evidenced by the extreme weather, the unraveling of American society, growing discord, and the inability to find peace at home or abroad.
“We all have had some kind of religious experience. Either we went to church, synagogue or the mosque and we heard the preacher talk about God’s Judgment.
Sometimes the reverend would say it in a way that would make it so frightening—and the Judgment of Allah is a frightening thing. The pastor would get us to act better by terrifying us,” wrote the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan in a 2019 article, “America Kindles God’s Anger, Wrath.”
“When you pick up the Bible and the Holy Qur’an, you read about the Judgment in a way that is so terrifying that today many pastors don’t want to talk about it. We want to talk about the Grace of God, the Mercy of God, the Forgiveness of God. But very few want to talk about the Wrath of God.”
The Minister continued, “I live in America. It’s the greatest country on earth, but it’s the most wicked. America boasts, ‘I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.’
She has bombed out cities of other nations and brought other nations to total ruin, not losing a plane or a pilot. She is the only remaining superpower and God made her that for His purpose. Will you submit America or must you be taken and destroyed?
“When God sends down His Judgment, He makes a decision. He says, ‘Behold, I make all things new.’ Not some things—all things. Then He says, ‘there will be a new heaven and a new earth and the former things shall pass away.’ This is a no good world because it is ruled by the enemy of God.
So, when God starts judging a world in which America is the chief, she is the head of a world, that means nations have to pass away. Kingdoms have to pass away. Systems have to pass away. And people who operate systems, who uphold the kingdoms, and are in the nations that fight against the Kingdom of God, all have to go.”
We are living in the time of God’s judgment and anger. Our continued slaughter only drives America to a final punishment and destruction—if she refuses to repent. We see few signs that she will.
