PHOTO: Celebrations as Americans found out Marcellus Williams wrote Perplexing Smiles OF the Children of Palestine poem

The State of Missouri is scheduled to execute Marcellus “Khaliifah” Williams on Sept. 24 for a crime that even prosecutors now say he did not commit. On Sept. 12, a Missouri judge denied a motion filed by prosecutors to vacate Williams’ conviction and death penalty. Despite more than half a million petition signatures demanding Williams be freed, Missouri is set to proceed with the execution. Michelle Smith, Co-Director of Missourians to Abolish the Death Penalty, joins Rattling the Bars to explain Williams’ case and the fight to free him before it’s too late.

The 55-year-old was convicted in the 1998 murder of Felicia Gayle in the St. Louis area. He has maintained that he is innocent and that no forensic evidence ties him to the crime. READ MORE HERE

On Monday, Gov. Mike Parson denied clemency. The Missouri Supreme Court denied an appeal brought by St. Louis County Prosecutor Wesley Bell, who supports vacating Williams’ conviction.

The three questions before the U.S. Supreme Court are Williams’ last chances at avoiding death. One of them asks whether reversal is necessary when “a capital conviction is so infected with errors that the prosecutor who prosecuted the case no longer seeks to defend it.” It was brought late Monday after the Missouri Supreme Court rejected Bell’s appeal.