Missouri to execute Muslim inmate prosecutors believe may be innocent

The Missouri Supreme Court and governor of the state declined Monday to halt the execution scheduled for Tuesday of death row inmate Imam Marcellus Khalifah Williams, despite prosecutors believing there might be evidence to prove his innocence, according to media outlets.

"Mr. Williams has exhausted due process and every judicial avenue, including over 15 hearings attempting to argue his innocence and overturn his conviction," said Gov. Mike Parson in a statement.

In 2001, Williams, 55, was convicted and sentenced to the death penalty for the 1998 killing of Felicia Gayle, a former newspaper reporter found stabbed to death in her home.

Williams claimed his innocence from the beginning, and his execution was postponed in both 2015 and 2017 to pursue additional DNA testing on the knife that was used in the murder after revelations that Williams' DNA was not found on the weapon.

Prosecutors in January entered a motion for a stay of execution, saying that the DNA testing of the murder weapon could exclude Williams as the killer.

That argument fell apart last month after new DNA testing revealed that the murder weapon had been mishandled by investigators, thus contaminating the evidence meant to exonerate Williams.

Attorneys on both sides "received a report indicating the DNA on the murder weapon belonged to an assistant prosecuting attorney and an investigator who had handled the murder weapon without gloves prior to trial," according to the case summary.

The new DNA testing "undermined the prosecutor's claim of actual innocence and fully supports the circuit court's finding that this evidence neither shows the existence of an alternate perpetrator nor excludes Williams as the murderer," the Supreme Court wrote in its Monday ruling.

Williams is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection at 6.00 pm CST local time (2300GMT) on Tuesday.

Since the decision to not halt the execution was handed down, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization in the US, issued a petition to the Missouri governor to block the execution. More than 35,000 people have already signed it.

"It is unconscionable to allow an execution to proceed when credible evidence of innocence exists," said CAIR National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell in a statement.

"Governor Parson has the power to prevent a wrongful execution, and we are calling on everyone to join this urgent action," Mitchell added. "No one should be put to death when questions of guilt remain, particularly in a case fraught with racial bias and systemic failure."