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0:38

Forensic Tales discusses topics that some

0:40

listeners may find disturbing. The

0:42

contents of this episode may not be suitable for

0:44

everyone. Listener discretion is advised.

0:48

Marcellus Williams was charged and convicted of

0:50

murdering a St. Louis woman inside her

0:52

home in August of 1998. Despite

0:56

zero forensic evidence linking him to

0:58

the brutal murder, he sits

1:00

on death row today. Is

1:03

Marcellus Williams a cold-blooded killer? Or

1:06

another wrongfully accused man like he and

1:08

his attorneys claim? This

1:11

is Forensic Tales, episode number 214.

1:15

The story of Marcellus Williams.

1:28

Forensic Tales The

1:35

Story of Marcellus Williams The

1:40

Story of Marcellus Williams Welcome

1:46

to Forensic Tales. I'm your host,

1:49

Courtney Fretwell-Ariola. Forensic

1:51

Tales is a weekly true crime

1:53

podcast covering real, spine-tingling

1:55

stories with a forensic science

1:58

twist. cases

2:00

have been solved with forensic

2:02

science, while others have

2:04

turned cold. Every

2:07

remarkable story sends us a chilling

2:09

reminder that not all stories have

2:11

happy endings. As

2:14

a one-woman show, your support helps

2:16

me find new compelling cases, conduct

2:19

in-depth fact-based research, and produce and

2:22

edit this weekly show. You

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can support my work in two simple ways. Become

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leave a positive review. Before

2:36

we get to the episode, we've got three

2:38

new patreon supporters to thank. Thank

2:40

you so much to Ken S, Kristen

2:43

L, and Carol A for

2:45

becoming the show's newest supporters.

2:49

Now let's get to this week's episode. What

2:52

would you do if you were accused of a

2:54

crime you didn't commit? And what

2:56

if the crime was the worst of the worst,

2:59

first-degree murder? If convicted,

3:01

you could spend the rest of your life

3:03

behind bars. Or even worse,

3:06

if the death penalty is legal where you live, you

3:08

could be executed. Lethal injection,

3:11

firing squad, hanging. The

3:15

circumstantial case against you was strong,

3:17

making you look guilty. Still,

3:19

the case seemed lacking in

3:21

cold, hard, physical evidence. There's

3:24

no DNA tying you to anything.

3:27

Regardless, you're convicted anyway.

3:30

Now what do you do? Well,

3:33

if this happened to you, you wouldn't be alone.

3:36

According to the National Registry of Exonerations,

3:38

575 wrongfully convicted people have been exonerated

3:43

based on DNA tests that

3:45

demonstrated their innocence since 1989.

3:50

But why weren't these people released sooner?

3:53

Well, one reason is money. While

3:56

genetic tests from 23andMe and

3:58

other consumer websites are relatively

4:00

affordable. The kinds of

4:03

DNA tests used in criminal cases cost

4:05

a lot more. In

4:07

fact, DNA testing in a single case can

4:09

cost anywhere from $5,000 up to $50,000 and

4:14

sometimes even more. And

4:17

who's gonna pay for this type of testing

4:19

when the results aren't even guaranteed? That's

4:22

also assuming there's still testable DNA in

4:24

the case. But

4:26

let's say you have the money. That

4:29

doesn't even guarantee the court system will allow

4:31

testing to be done. According

4:34

to the Innocence Project, even

4:36

though all 50 states in the US have

4:39

post-conviction DNA laws, many

4:42

of these laws are so restrictive and

4:44

limited in scope that few

4:46

people can actually access DNA

4:48

testing after being convicted. But

4:52

let's say you overcame everything. Despite

4:54

being convicted of a crime you claim you

4:57

didn't commit, you secure the

4:59

money for DNA testing and

5:01

the post-conviction laws allow you to

5:04

do so. What happens

5:06

next? On

5:08

August 11th, 1998, 42-year-old Felicia Gale was

5:12

found dead inside her gated community home

5:15

in the University City suburb of

5:17

St. Louis, Missouri. Felicia,

5:20

a former St. Louis

5:22

post-dispatch reporter, had been

5:24

stabbed dozens of times with a butcher knife

5:27

from her own kitchen. Earlier

5:30

that night, Felicia's husband, Dan, came

5:32

home from work and found his wife lying

5:34

on the floor with the knife still lodged

5:37

into her neck. From

5:39

the beginning, there was a ton of forensic

5:41

evidence for the St. Louis police to work

5:44

with. There were pubic hairs

5:46

found near Felicia's body. Bloody

5:48

fingerprints were found on several walls throughout

5:51

the house. There was

5:53

even a trail of bloody footprints on the

5:55

floor leading straight out the front door. The

5:59

kitchen had been ruined. transact and almost

6:01

every closet and drawer had been left open.

6:04

But oddly enough, not much was

6:06

actually taken besides her wallet in

6:08

an old Apple computer. Felicia's

6:11

expensive wedding ring and $400

6:13

in cash were still inside

6:15

her closet. With

6:18

all that forensic evidence, you would think that this

6:20

would be a pretty quick investigation. Blood,

6:24

fingerprints, shoe prints, hair. The

6:28

cops could collect the DNA that was clearly

6:30

left everywhere and upload it to CODIS. Bingo,

6:33

you would have a match. But that's

6:35

not what happened. Instead

6:37

of any arrests or DNA matches,

6:39

the case quickly stalled out. By

6:44

all accounts, Felicia was a model

6:46

citizen. She certainly wasn't what you

6:48

would describe as your typical murder victim, if

6:50

there is such a thing. She

6:53

had been a reporter for the St.

6:55

Louis Post-Dispatch for many years, but left

6:57

the newspaper in 1992

6:59

to pursue full-time volunteer work.

7:03

Co-workers who worked with her all there

7:05

described her as a kind and gentle

7:07

person who went out of her

7:10

way to do nice things for people, even

7:12

complete strangers. So

7:15

for someone to break into her house and

7:17

murder her practically in broad daylight was almost

7:19

unimaginable. It just didn't make any sense. No

7:24

one deserves to be stabbed to death for

7:26

a wallet and an old Apple laptop computer.

7:31

It wasn't until months later and only

7:33

after Felicia's family posted a $10,000 reward

7:35

for any information leading to an arrest

7:38

that the cops received their first

7:41

big tip and the tip came

7:43

from a pretty sketchy source. According

7:46

to a jailhouse informant named Henry Cole, his

7:49

former cellmate had already confessed

7:51

to Felicia's murder. He

7:55

told the cops that sometime during May 1999,

7:57

many months after Felicia's murder, after

8:00

the murder, he and his

8:02

cellmate, Marcellus Williams, were

8:05

watching TV and saw a news report about

8:07

the murder. Then

8:09

not long after that, Cole

8:11

said 29-year-old Marcellus Williams confessed

8:13

to everything, saying that

8:16

he was the one cops were looking for. According

8:19

to Cole, over the next few weeks,

8:22

they had countless conversations about it, and

8:24

Marcellus, over and over again, admitted that he

8:27

was the guy. He even

8:29

seemed to be proud that he had gotten away

8:31

with murder up until this point. He

8:34

even went into a lot of detail

8:36

during many of these conversations about

8:39

how he got into Felicia's home and

8:41

how he surprised and attacked her once

8:43

she got out of the shower. Now

8:46

this seemed like a pretty plausible story

8:48

for the St. Louis investigators working on

8:50

Felicia's case. Marcellus

8:53

knew things about the crime that only

8:55

the killer would. He

8:57

fit the profile they were looking for. He

9:00

lived in the University City area. And

9:03

plus, without any other leads,

9:06

this story was all they had to work

9:08

with. Three

9:10

weeks after the murder, Marcellus Williams was

9:12

arrested on unrelated charges on August 31,

9:14

1998, and he shared

9:18

a cell with Henry Cole at the St.

9:21

Louis City Jail from April through

9:23

June of 1999. After Cole

9:27

was released from jail in June

9:29

1999, he went straight

9:31

to the University City police and

9:33

told them about Marcellus's alleged jailhouse

9:36

confession. His story

9:38

was so promising to investigators because

9:41

he knew things about the crime that had never

9:43

been released to the public. So

9:46

from the cops' perspective, they had no

9:48

choice but to believe Henry Cole. But

9:51

they knew simply relying on a jailhouse

9:54

snitch probably wouldn't be good enough for

9:56

an arrest, let alone a conviction. usually

10:00

have plenty of reasons to lie. So

10:03

that's when the police went out and got

10:05

a second informant, Inter

10:08

Laura Asaro, Marcellus Williams'

10:10

former girlfriend. According

10:13

to her, Marcellus had also confessed to

10:15

her about the murder when they were

10:17

dating. Like Henry Cole,

10:20

she also seemed to know things about the

10:22

crime that weren't released to the public. So

10:26

now the police had two people who could be

10:28

used as witnesses at trial. Even

10:31

though both Laura Asaro and

10:33

Henry Cole were facing criminal

10:35

charges in unrelated cases at

10:38

the time the police spoke to them about

10:40

Felicia's murder and both of

10:42

them did have credibility issues, they

10:44

were both believed to be telling the truth. Two

10:49

days after speaking with Marcellus' former girlfriend,

10:51

the cops got a search warrant

10:53

for his grandfather's Buick. The

10:56

car that Laura Asaro said that Marcellus

10:58

was driving on the day of Felicia's

11:00

murder. And inside

11:02

the car, they found exactly what they

11:04

hoped to find, the stolen Apple

11:06

laptop, ruler and

11:08

calculator with Felicia's old employer

11:11

written on them, all

11:13

items that were taken from the house after the

11:15

murder. By

11:18

that point, the police had everything they needed

11:20

for an arrest and they didn't waste any

11:22

time doing it. They

11:24

had two informants saying Marcellus confessed to

11:27

them about the murder and now they

11:29

had the stolen computer, ruler

11:31

and calculator found inside his car.

11:35

Marcellus Williams was no stranger to the

11:37

criminal justice system, which

11:39

made him look like an even better suspect.

11:42

He had a previous conviction of burglary

11:45

and at the time he was charged

11:47

with Felicia's murder, he was

11:49

already serving time for armed robbery of

11:51

a fast food restaurant. So

11:53

that established a pattern of behavior. This

11:56

guy is a criminal and he's been caught

11:58

robbing people multiple times. times. But

12:02

right from the beginning, Marcellus claimed he was

12:04

innocent and had nothing to do with it.

12:08

Yes, he was a convicted criminal, that's

12:10

for sure, but he was no murderer.

12:14

But the police and prosecutors felt

12:16

differently. They felt like

12:18

the evidence and the informants they had

12:20

allowed them to build a pretty strong

12:22

case against him by this point. According

12:26

to the authorities, on August 11th,

12:30

1998, Marcellus drove his

12:32

grandfather's Buick to a bus stop

12:35

and caught a bus to University City. Once

12:38

he got there, he started looking around for

12:40

a house where he could rob and steal

12:42

some cash. He

12:44

didn't want a house that looked like someone was

12:47

home, and that's when he

12:49

came across Felicia Gale's house. At

12:52

first, he knocked on the front door to see

12:55

if anyone was home, but no one answered.

12:58

That's when he broke the window next

13:00

to the front door, reached his hand

13:02

inside, and unlocked the door from the

13:04

inside. As

13:06

he walked upstairs to the second floor,

13:08

he heard water running like someone was

13:10

taking a shower. This

13:13

wasn't what he expected because he thought

13:15

the house was completely empty. But

13:18

instead of simply turning around and leaving,

13:21

he went back downstairs to the kitchen where

13:23

he grabbed a butcher knife and

13:25

waited for whoever was in the shower to

13:27

come downstairs. Of course,

13:29

we now know that it was Felicia. Once

13:34

Felicia got downstairs, that's when the

13:36

police and prosecutors say Marcellus stabbed

13:38

her at least 16 times.

13:41

In fact, some news reports alleged

13:44

that she might have been stabbed dozens

13:46

of more times than that. After

13:50

that, they said Marcellus went back downstairs to

13:52

use the bathroom to try and clean some

13:54

of the blood off his hands and clothes.

13:58

He also grabbed one of Felicia's house. husband's

14:00

jackets to try and cover up

14:02

some of the blood on his clothing. Before

14:05

leaving, the police said Marcellus

14:08

grabbed Felicia's purse and her

14:10

husband's laptop. Besides

14:12

cash, the purse also contained

14:14

a St. Louis Post dispatcher,

14:17

ruler and calculator. Two

14:20

items that were later recovered from

14:22

Marcellus's grandfather's Buick months later. After

14:26

Marcellus left the house, the police

14:28

believed he had caught another bus

14:30

back to his grandfather's car. He

14:33

then drove the car to pick up his girlfriend,

14:36

Laura Asaro. When

14:39

Laura spoke with the cops later on, she

14:41

thought it was odd that Marcellus was wearing

14:43

a jacket when he picked her up. It

14:46

was the middle of the summer and

14:48

really hot, so wearing a big jacket

14:50

like that didn't make much sense, so

14:52

she thought he was trying to cover up

14:54

something. She also

14:56

told the cops that he had scratches on his neck

14:58

like he had been in a fight and

15:01

the shirt he was wearing underneath had blood on it.

15:05

Later on, Marcellus allegedly put his

15:07

bloody clothes inside a backpack and

15:09

threw them away in the gutter,

15:11

claiming he no longer wanted them.

15:14

Laura also told investigators she

15:16

saw the stolen laptop inside the

15:18

Buick that day. The

15:21

next day, Laura said she went back to the

15:23

Buick to get some of her clothes that were

15:25

in there, but she said

15:28

Marcellus tried pushing her away and didn't want

15:30

her to look inside the trunk. But

15:33

before he could, she was able to reach

15:35

inside and pull out a purse and

15:38

when she looked inside, she saw

15:40

Felicia's Missouri ID card. According

15:43

to the police, when Laura asked him why

15:45

he had some woman's ID card and

15:47

purse inside his trunk, that's

15:50

when he allegedly confessed to her about the murder.

15:52

He then went

15:54

on to explain everything in detail to her

15:56

about how he broke into the house, thinking

15:59

that it was an empty, but ended up stabbing

16:01

her to death. He

16:03

told Laura that if she went to the cops

16:06

about it, he would kill her and her

16:08

children. So that's why it took

16:10

her so long to come forward to the authorities.

16:14

At trial, the prosecutor's case against

16:16

Marcellus relied very heavily on two

16:19

people, Henry Cole, his

16:21

former cellmate in jail, and

16:23

his ex-girlfriend, Laura Asaro. Without

16:26

the two of them, they really didn't have

16:28

much of a case. There certainly wasn't

16:30

any physical or forensic evidence linking

16:32

him to anything. But the

16:35

credibility of both of these witnesses

16:37

was something that really couldn't be

16:39

ignored. According

16:42

to Marcellus' defense, Henry Cole had

16:44

a long history of lying and

16:46

deception. Before

16:49

he agreed to work as a witness

16:51

for the prosecution against Marcellus, he

16:53

pleaded guilty in 1996 to

16:56

an armed robbery of a bank and

16:58

was sentenced to four years of probation

17:01

with 10 years of prison suspended.

17:04

Even though he allegedly violated his

17:06

parole over six times, he

17:09

was never actually sent away to prison. Laura

17:13

Asaro, the former girlfriend, also had

17:15

credibility issues of her own. When

17:18

the police approached her about this case, she

17:21

was facing multiple criminal charges

17:23

for solicitation. She

17:25

also had testified against Marcell in

17:28

another unrelated case in the past.

17:32

But their credibility wasn't the only problem.

17:35

According to the defense, a lot of

17:37

their testimony didn't even line up with

17:39

the evidence that was collected at the

17:41

crime scene or the

17:43

evidence that was collected later on. According

17:47

to Laura Asaro, Marcellus had

17:49

scratches on his neck when he picked her up

17:51

on the day of the murder. However,

17:54

the crime scene reports make

17:56

no mention of foreign DNA being

17:58

found underneath the victim's neck. fingernails.

18:01

So there wasn't any evidence proving

18:04

Felicia had scratched or attacked him

18:06

during the stabbing. Now

18:08

to be fair, the lack of

18:11

foreign DNA doesn't necessarily prove anything

18:13

either way. It's possible she could

18:15

have scratched him without getting DNA

18:18

underneath her fingernails. But

18:20

according to the defense, that seemed

18:22

unlikely. You would

18:25

think if Marcellus had scratches all

18:27

over his neck, just like Laura

18:29

claimed, there should be at least

18:31

a little of his DNA underneath her

18:33

fingernails, the victim's fingernails. But

18:36

they didn't find anything. A lot

18:40

of bloody shoe prints were found throughout

18:42

the house, like the killer walked around

18:44

after the stabbing. However,

18:46

none of the bloody shoe prints were the

18:48

same size as Marcellus. Even

18:51

the pubic hairs found around Felicia's

18:53

body didn't match. They presumably belonged

18:55

to someone else too. Henry

18:59

Cole told investigators that Marcellus had

19:01

bragged to him about wearing gloves

19:04

during the murder. But

19:06

if that's the case, how do you

19:08

explain the bloody fingerprints found everywhere throughout

19:10

the crime scene? If

19:13

Marcellus wore gloves, there shouldn't

19:15

be any unknown fingerprints at

19:17

the scene. It's not like he

19:19

would have removed the gloves, wiped

19:22

the wall with his hands, and then put the

19:24

gloves back on. So

19:26

according to the defense, that also seemed

19:29

to contradict what the evidence suggested. Not

19:32

even the fingerprints found at the crime scene

19:35

could be matched to Marcellus. Based

19:37

on the crime reports, none of the

19:40

fingerprints found were deemed usable by the

19:42

police. And all of

19:44

them were destroyed before Marcellus's defense even

19:46

had a chance to do their own

19:48

testing on the prints. So

19:51

it's unclear who the prints belonged to

19:53

exactly. That's

19:55

all to say that no biological

19:57

or forensic evidence collected at the

19:59

scene matched Marcellus. On

20:03

top of the cellmate and ex-girlfriend, there

20:05

was a third witness who was very

20:07

important to the prosecution and that

20:10

was Glenn Roberts. The guy

20:13

prosecutors said bought the stolen

20:15

Apple laptop from Marcellus after

20:17

the murder. Glenn

20:20

Roberts testified that Marcellus sold him

20:22

a laptop computer taken during a

20:24

robbery. He would

20:27

have added that Marcellus said he

20:29

was selling the computer for his

20:31

girlfriend, Laura Asaro, but the

20:33

trial judge wouldn't allow that testimony to

20:36

be told to the jury because of

20:38

hearsay laws. This

20:41

episode is brought to you by Bumble, who

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says Valentine's Day is just for couples. Just

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you can't get out there and live your

20:49

best love life. That's where Bumble comes in.

20:52

This February 14th, you can flip

20:54

the script and give those relationshipers

20:56

a friendly dose of FOMO. Say

20:59

no to staying in this Valentine's Day

21:01

and yes to more. More dates, more

21:04

first kisses, more gossip for the group

21:06

chat, girlies. Do Valentine's your way. Date

21:08

now on Bumble. The

21:11

jury deliberated less than two

21:14

hours before finding Marcellus Williams

21:16

guilty of first-degree murder,

21:18

first-degree burglary, first-degree

21:21

robbery and two counts

21:23

of armed criminal action. And

21:26

when it came to a sentence

21:28

he was given the maximum. The

21:30

same jury who found him guilty also

21:32

deliberated for less than 90 minutes when

21:35

it came to a sentence. As

21:38

to one count of first-degree murder,

21:40

Marcellus was sentenced to death and

21:43

as to the rest of the criminal charges he

21:46

was sentenced to an additional 30 years to

21:49

be served consecutively. His

21:52

execution date was scheduled for January

21:54

2015. Despite

21:58

the conviction, Marcellus vowed to

22:00

keep fighting for his innocence. And

22:02

in 2003, Marcellus and his attorneys filed their first

22:06

appeal with the Missouri Supreme Court.

22:09

Since Marcellus was sentenced to death, all of

22:11

his appeals would go directly to the state

22:14

Supreme Court. His

22:16

first appeal in 2003 focused on

22:19

a lot of different issues his

22:21

appellate attorneys argued warranted a new

22:24

trial. They brought up everything from

22:26

hearsay evidence relating to the stolen

22:28

Apple laptop to unfair

22:31

jury selection. Many

22:33

people argued that the entire trial

22:36

was racially charged because it involved

22:38

a black male defendant and a

22:40

white female victim. According

22:43

to his appeal, the prosecutors

22:45

struck six of seven

22:47

qualified black candidates from the

22:49

panel, creating a jury

22:51

of one black person and 11

22:53

white people. They

22:56

argued that evidence about Marcellus' attempted

22:58

escape from the St. Louis City

23:00

jail where he was housed shouldn't

23:03

have been used against him. But

23:05

it was and made him look like an even

23:07

worse criminal. But

23:10

after reviewing everything, the Missouri Supreme

23:12

Court found nothing in his appeal

23:14

that warranted a new trial and

23:17

his death sentence was also upheld. In

23:21

their ruling, the state Supreme Court

23:23

said quote, this

23:25

court concludes that the death sentence

23:27

in this case is neither excessive

23:30

nor disproportionate to the penalty

23:32

imposed in similar cases. Considering

23:35

the crime, the strength of the

23:37

evidence and the defendant, Williams

23:40

confessed to the murder. The

23:42

crime involves a vicious attack during a

23:45

robbery. Williams had

23:47

a lengthy and violent criminal record.

23:49

The sentence is not disproportionate, end

23:52

quote. Marcellus

23:54

and his lawyers didn't stop there. Two

23:58

years later, they filed another appeal. appeal.

24:01

In that motion, they challenged both

24:04

the conviction and sins, arguing

24:06

that his ex-girlfriend or the police

24:09

could have planted the ruler and

24:11

calculator found in his car, and

24:14

that the car was inoperable at the time

24:16

of the murder, as his brother had testified

24:18

at trial. But his

24:21

motion was once again denied. In

24:25

2008, another appeal was launched. This

24:28

time, Marcellus' lawyers asked the

24:30

U.S. Supreme Court to order

24:32

the Missouri State Supreme Court

24:34

to hear new evidence. And

24:37

some of that new alleged evidence

24:39

included DNA testing that

24:41

they believed would help establish his

24:43

innocence. In

24:46

this 2008 appeal, his lawyers included

24:48

evidence about Deborah McLean, a woman

24:51

who was murdered just a month before

24:54

Felicia in a neighboring city. Not

24:57

only were these cases similar because they were

24:59

committed just a few miles away from one

25:01

another, but Deborah was killed

25:03

in a similar way. She'd

25:05

been stabbed multiple times, and the murder

25:07

weapon was a knife that came from

25:10

her own kitchen, just like

25:12

Felicia was. Marcellus'

25:15

lawyers thought that comparing the

25:17

DNA evidence from that crime

25:19

scene to Felicia's case might

25:22

actually prove Marcellus was innocent. If

25:25

they could prove the two murders

25:28

were later on related, this might

25:30

help officially eliminate him as a

25:32

suspect in either case. But

25:35

that request for DNA testing was

25:37

denied. His attorneys

25:40

weren't allowed to do it, and

25:42

there was no way of proving

25:44

or disproving that these two murders

25:47

were connected or not. By 2010,

25:49

Marcellus and his team of supporters felt

25:51

pretty good about where things were headed.

25:53

A U.S. District

25:55

Court judge had decided to vacate his

25:57

death sentence on the ground.

26:00

that his original trial lawyers

26:02

had failed to investigate and

26:05

present potentially mitigating evidence. That

26:08

Marcellus had suffered physical and sexual

26:10

abuse as a child. His

26:12

family condoned his criminal behavior and he

26:15

had been exposed to drugs, guns, and

26:17

violence starting from a very young

26:19

age. The

26:21

judge thought that if the jury had heard

26:24

about any of this they might

26:26

not have sentenced him to death. He probably

26:28

would have gotten life in prison and instead.

26:31

Now this judge in 2010 wasn't

26:34

going to vacate Marcellus's original

26:36

conviction. All he wanted

26:38

to do was take the death penalty

26:41

off the table because his lawyers never

26:43

presented this mitigating evidence. Although

26:46

this was initially a small victory

26:48

for Marcellus and his supporters, this

26:51

decision was eventually overruled. In

26:55

2012 the US Court of Appeals

26:58

reinstated the death sentence saying

27:00

that the evidence of childhood abuse

27:02

would have undermined the defense's portrayal

27:05

of Marcellus at trial as quote,

27:07

a family man who was innocent of such

27:09

a brutal murder end quote.

27:13

The court also said that quote,

27:16

Williams cannot plead ineffective assistance

27:18

of counsel alleging that a different

27:20

strategy would have worked better end

27:22

quote. In other words

27:25

the death penalty shouldn't be taken off

27:27

the table simply because he lost. Following

27:32

that decision, Marcellus was sent back to

27:34

death row and three

27:36

years went by with very little progress in

27:38

his quest for a new trial until

27:40

2015. On the eve

27:44

of Marcellus's scheduled execution date in

27:46

January 2015, the Missouri Supreme

27:50

Court decided to step in and ordered

27:53

that his execution be stopped until

27:56

DNA testing could be done. He

27:59

was literally just hours away from

28:01

being executed by the time

28:03

this ruling came down. On

28:07

top of DNA testing, Marcellus'

28:09

lawyers also alleged misconduct by

28:11

prosecutors. They

28:13

accused the state of not turning

28:16

over Henry Coles and Laura Asaro's

28:18

arrest records until just two

28:20

days before the trial started. These

28:23

records might have been important for his

28:25

defense because they showed a

28:28

pattern of mental health issues and drug use

28:30

for both of them. And

28:33

this could have been used by his defense

28:35

to challenge their credibility. They

28:38

described Henry Coles as a career criminal

28:40

who would do and say anything for

28:42

money. He also had

28:44

a lengthy history of mental health issues

28:47

that the jury in Marcellus' case never

28:49

heard about. Even

28:52

Henry Coles' old family called him a

28:54

liar. In

28:56

one particular case, Henry agreed

28:58

to serve as an informant

29:00

against his own son, although

29:02

his family alleged the testimony

29:04

he provided wasn't true. Laura,

29:07

the former girlfriend, was

29:10

also painted in a terrible light. They

29:13

described her as a, quote,

29:15

crack-headed prostitute, end quote. She

29:18

was also described as a liar. According

29:21

to her, she saw the victim's ID

29:23

card in the back of Marcellus' car.

29:27

But that same ID card was

29:29

recovered from inside Felicia, the victim's

29:31

house. So it would have

29:33

been impossible to find it in two places at

29:35

once. Marcellus'

29:39

lawyers argued that she only agreed

29:41

to testify against him in exchange

29:43

for her own criminal charges to be

29:46

dropped. And they were. She

29:48

also received a portion of the reward

29:51

money originally offered by the victim's family.

29:55

What is commonly known as Jailhouse

29:57

Snitch testimony is considered by many

29:59

people as notoriously unreliable.

30:01

A lot of

30:03

these people are motivated and incentivized to

30:06

tell lies for their own benefit. For

30:09

example, if someone agrees

30:11

to testify against someone else and

30:13

in exchange for that testimony, they

30:16

get their own criminal charges

30:18

reduced or dropped completely, they

30:20

might be incentivized to lie

30:22

or fabricate things. It's

30:25

only natural for people to do things that

30:27

are in their best interest. According

30:30

to data collected from the National

30:32

Registry of Exonerations, 8% of

30:36

all exonerees in the registry were

30:39

convicted in part by jailhouse informant

30:41

testimony. When

30:43

it comes to murder cases, these

30:45

numbers are even higher. Ever

30:49

since DNA had been introduced

30:52

to criminal investigations and

30:54

technology has improved, a

30:56

lot of cold cases have been solved and

30:59

a lot of people have been exonerated

31:01

of crimes they didn't actually commit. Over

31:05

the past decade, over 500 people

31:07

sent to prison have

31:10

now been proven innocent all

31:12

thanks to DNA testing. And in

31:15

2015, Marcellus' lawyers hoped

31:19

that he might become one of them. The testing

31:23

didn't happen overnight. It actually took close

31:25

to a year for the results to

31:27

come back. But the

31:29

wait was definitely worth it for Marcellus and

31:31

his team of supporters. In

31:34

2016, about a year after he was already scheduled

31:38

to be executed, experts

31:40

concluded that the DNA collected from

31:43

the murder weapon didn't match Marcellus.

31:47

DNA had completely excluded him from

31:49

ever touching the murder weapon. One

31:53

of those experts, biologist Greg

31:56

Hamplkin, even explained how

31:58

DNA is transferred a murder like

32:00

this. According to

32:03

him, quote, when

32:05

you're stabbing DNA transfers because

32:07

of restriction and force. If

32:10

you're stabbing anyone, you have a good

32:12

chance of transferring your DNA because of

32:15

the force, end quote. But

32:18

that's not all he said. He

32:20

also went on to say, quote, the

32:23

DNA on the knife isn't enough to

32:25

incriminate someone, but it

32:27

is good enough to exclude someone. It's

32:30

like finding a social security card

32:33

with some blurred numbers. There's

32:36

still enough there to exclude

32:38

someone, end quote. Other

32:41

evidence from the crime scene were also

32:44

tested, including the bloody footprints and

32:46

hair. Neither one of them

32:48

belonged to Marcellus either. The

32:50

hair also didn't belong to the victim

32:52

or her husband. But

32:55

prosecutors still weren't giving up. Despite

32:58

there being no forensic evidence linking him

33:00

to the murder, they believed

33:03

their informants testimony was enough

33:05

to secure a death penalty

33:07

conviction. And the Missouri Supreme Court

33:10

agreed. The state Supreme

33:12

Court ruled that his execution should

33:14

still go on. And Marcellus

33:16

was given a new execution date in 2017.

33:21

This decision only seemed to generate more

33:24

attention to the case, especially

33:26

among anti-death penalty groups. Attorney

33:30

Barry Scheck, who defended O.J. Simpson as

33:32

part of his 1994 dream team and

33:36

co-founded the Innocence Project, joined

33:39

Marcellus's defense team. From

33:42

there, the Midwest Innocence Project launched

33:44

a petition to try and get the

33:46

sentence commuted to life in prison. And

33:50

Sister Helen Prejean, one of the

33:52

country's largest anti-death penalty advocates, also

33:55

joined the case. At

33:58

this point, the most promising chance to

34:01

save Marcellus was through the state's

34:03

governor. Every single

34:05

one of his appeals had already been denied,

34:07

and there wasn't much that the court could

34:09

do anymore. But

34:12

under Missouri law, the governor had

34:14

the right to stop any scheduled

34:16

executions. So that's

34:18

where his supporters focused their attention on.

34:22

In early 2017, the Midwest

34:24

Innocence Project wrote a nine-page

34:27

petition to the governor asking

34:29

him to appoint an independent board

34:32

to look into Marcellus' claims of

34:34

innocence through DNA. But

34:36

this was a long shot. Over

34:38

the years, only a few governors have

34:41

ever appointed a special board to look

34:43

at a criminal case like this one.

34:46

Most of these types of requests just

34:48

go completely ignored. But

34:51

in Marcellus' case, it actually worked.

34:55

The special board consisted mostly of retired judges

34:57

from both federal and state courts. But

35:01

before they ever announced what they found after

35:03

reviewing his case, then

35:06

Missouri Governor Eric Greitens resigned in the

35:08

middle of a scandal involving

35:11

campaign finances and an extramarital

35:13

affair. And what

35:15

this special board concluded about Marcellus' case

35:18

was never released. A

35:21

lot of people thought that Governor Greitens would commute Marcellus'

35:24

sentence before he resigned,

35:27

but he didn't. Instead, he

35:29

pardoned a lot of other people with

35:31

crimes ranging from murder to rape. Marcellus

35:35

Williams wasn't one of them, and he remained

35:37

on death row. Fast

35:41

forward to today, 2024. Marcellus

35:45

Williams' new execution date could be

35:47

scheduled as early as this month.

35:51

Although no official execution date has been put

35:53

on the books yet, his

35:55

attorneys worry that that day could

35:57

come anytime now. but

36:00

they vow to keep fighting for him until the

36:02

very end. Just

36:04

a couple of days ago, from the time

36:06

that I'm sitting down to record this episode,

36:10

St. Louis County prosecuting attorney,

36:12

Wesley Bell, announced that he

36:14

was seeking to vacate Marcellus's

36:17

conviction. He

36:19

wants to invoke a relatively

36:21

new provision of Missouri law

36:23

that allows prosecutors to intervene

36:25

in cases when they have,

36:27

quote, information that the

36:29

convicted person might be innocent,

36:32

end quote. In

36:34

this case, he's referring to the DNA testing that

36:36

was done back in 2016 and 2017 that

36:42

proved Marcellus could be excluded

36:44

as the contributor, and

36:46

the DNA collected from the murder weapon belonged

36:48

to someone else. Wesley

36:52

Bell asked the St. Louis County

36:54

Circuit Court where Marcellus was convicted

36:57

to set a hearing to consider the

36:59

DNA evidence and the other

37:01

issues his appellate attorneys have raised over the

37:03

years, including poor

37:05

assistance of counsel at trial

37:08

and prosecutorial misconduct. He

37:11

specifically wants the court to consider the

37:13

fact that all but

37:15

one qualified black juror were

37:17

intentionally excluded by the prosecution.

37:21

This request couldn't come at a more

37:23

crucial time. That's because

37:26

at this very moment, Missouri's Attorney

37:28

General is asking the state Supreme

37:30

Court to set a date

37:32

for Marcellus's execution. So

37:35

now what? Marcellus has

37:37

maintained his innocence from the beginning,

37:40

although two people allege he confessed,

37:43

and there's no forensic evidence linking him

37:45

to the murder. So

37:47

will this new hearing to discuss the

37:49

DNA evidence be set before his next

37:51

execution date, or will

37:54

Marcellus's attorneys have to hope

37:56

for another last minute stay

37:58

of execution? Only

38:00

time will tell. Is Marcellus

38:04

Williams a wrongfully convicted man or

38:07

did the trial get it right the first time? Since

38:11

these are very recent updates I'll be

38:13

following the case closely and bring

38:16

any updates about Marcellus Williams

38:18

to a special episode on

38:20

Patreon. You can also

38:22

follow the case for yourself and see

38:24

what happens. To

38:27

share your thoughts on the story be sure

38:29

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38:34

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38:41

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38:43

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38:45

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39:05

you so much for joining me this week. Please

39:08

join me next week. We'll have

39:10

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39:12

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