Hearing set to determine if a Missouri death row inmate is innocent. His execution is a month later

Associated Press

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A Missouri judge has set an Aug. 21 date for a hearing to determine if Marcellus Williams is innocent of the murder that landed him on death row — a hearing that comes just over a month before Williams is scheduled to die. Williams was hours away from execution in 2017 when he was given a reprieve after testing unavailable at the time of the killing showed that DNA on the murder weapon matched someone else. That evidence prompted St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell to file a motion to vacate the conviction. The new hearing date set on Tuesday is in response to Bell’s motion. The execution is set for Sept. 24.