Missouri executed Marcellus Williams on Sept. 24, a man whose guilt has been repeatedly called into question and who has always maintained his innocence for the 1998 murder of Felicia Gayle, a social worker and former St. Louis Post Dispatch reporter stabbed in her home. 

While items belonging to Gayle were allegedly found in Williams’ possession or were said to have been sold by him, no DNA or other physical evidence ever linked Williams to the crime. Williams’ arrest came after testimony from jailhouse informants and his former girlfriend, who his defense team also claimed had reason to benefit from providing their testimony.

The now-retired attorney who prosecuted Williams also confirmed that evidence that could have exonerated Williams was mishandled by the prosecution during the initial trial. Likewise, in recent years the murder weapon was mishandled by officials and contaminated. 

St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell even filed a motion earlier this year to vacate Williams’ conviction, saying he believed Williams was innocent of the crime. Bell cited undisclosed DNA evidence, ineffective counsel and racial discrimination in jury selection that “casts inexorable doubt” on Williams’ conviction and sentence. 

Nevertheless, Missouri Gov. Mike Parson, the state’s Attorney General and Missouri’s Supreme Court all refused to grant Williams a stay of execution – which had been granted twice before, once in 2015 and then again in 2017. He was put to death by lethal injection soon after. 

If we cannot be 110 percent sure 110 percent of the time that who we are executing is 110 percent guilty, we shouldn’t be using it at all. 

For every eight people executed in the United States, one person on death row is exonerated. On average, four death row inmates are exonerated each year for the crime that landed them there in the first place — that’s 200 exonerations since 1973. While there have been no verified instances of innocent people being put to death in the U.S., there have been at least “21 people executed despite “strong and credible” claims of innocence” according to AP News and the Death Penalty Information Center. 

That should raise the alarm bells for everyone. 

In the 1600 executions since 1976, I cannot help but wonder if we have actually executed that “one” in one in eight. One innocent person put to death via state-sanctioned murder is one too many.

I understand why people support the death penalty. I really do. I’ve been there, and I still find myself having an internal battle with my anti-death penalty position when it comes to those who have committed some of the most heinous and egregious crimes of our time. It’s hard to rationalize sparing the life of a person who has done something so sinister.

However, I can unequivocally say we’re doing something wrong if we even have to entertain the possibility that a death row inmate could be innocent – or, more alarmingly, that we have killed an innocent person. Tack on the racial disparity, its innate hypocrisy or the “cruel and unusual punishment” argument, I can say for certain that the death penalty has no place in our so-called “justice” system.