Lawyers arguing Marcellus Williams case at Mo. Supreme Court one day before his execution

JEFFERSON CITY — The Missouri Supreme Court on Monday will hear an appeal in the case of Marcellus “Khaliifah” Williams, who is set to be executed Tuesday after a circuit judge upheld his 2001 murder conviction last week.

Williams is scheduled to die by lethal injection for the brutal killing of former Post-Dispatch reporter Felicia “Lisha” Gayle Picus in 1998 in her University City home.

Matthew Jacober, special counsel for St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell’s office, filed the appeal earlier this week with the state’s high court, asking it to review St. Louis County Judge Bruce Hilton’s ruling upholding Williams’ conviction.

In response, the court asked Jacober to explain why the state’s highest court has jurisdiction.

Jacober, in his response, pointed to the procedural history of the Missouri Supreme Court handling death penalty cases. He also noted that the state Supreme Court has already taken up two separate filings in the last two months related to Williams’ effort to prove his innocence.

“Certainly, the court would not at this stage disclaim jurisdiction over a case involving a sentence of death now, after having already exercised its original jurisdiction to grant extraordinary relief to the Office of the Attorney General and order the very hearing that would be at issue in this appeal,” Jacober wrote in his response.

Lawyers for Williams and from the Missouri Attorney General’s Office, which has opposed William’s efforts, will each have 15 minutes to present their arguments to the judges on Monday.

Williams’ attorneys have also filed appeals with two other courts.

They first asked the Missouri Court of Appeals Eastern District to reconsider its 2010 denial of Williams’ claim that a trial prosecutor unconstitutionally removed Black prospective jurors because of their race. The almost 400-page motion presented new evidence from trial prosecutor Keith Larner’s testimony during a day-long Aug. 28 innocence hearing.

Williams, who is Black, was sentenced to death in 2001 by a jury made up of 11 white people and one Black person.

United States District Judge Rodney Sippel on Tuesday denied that motion because he said he could not rule on it without permission from the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. He also wrote that Larner’s new testimony did not warrant a review of those claims and his previous ruling.

Williams also asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday to halt his execution and review a claim that his due process was violated when Gov. Mike Parson broke up a review board before it could reach a conclusion about his innocence.

The U.S. Supreme Court had not filed a response as of Friday morning.

Williams has unsuccessfully appealed and challenged his first-degree murder conviction for more than two decades.

In January, Bell’s office filed to vacate Williams’ conviction, arguing he was innocent.

Eight months later, Hilton heard hours of testimony rehashing evidence that focused on contamination of DNA on the murder weapon, potential racial bias in the jury selection and, in Williams’ lawyer’s view, the unreliable witnesses on which much of his case hung.

Hilton said that Williams’ claim of innocence “unraveled” when an Aug. 19 DNA report showed the DNA profiles on the murder weapon were consistent with Larner and an investigator on the original case — which contradicted previous claims that the killer’s DNA was on the knife and would prove Williams was innocent.

Williams and his defense team have maintained his innocence, and have repeatedly pointed out that no physical evidence connects him to the crime other than a stolen laptop he sold to a neighbor.

The prosecution’s two main trial witnesses — Williams’ former cellmate and an ex-girlfriend — have since died.