A hearing is expected today in the case of death row inmate who claims innocence, weeks before he’s scheduled to be executed

(CNN) — A Missouri judge is expected to hold an evidentiary hearing Wednesday over the innocence claim of death row inmate Marcellus Williams, whose quest to prove he did not murder a woman in 1998 has been complicated by contaminated DNA evidence.

Williams, 55, is scheduled to be put to death on September 24 for the murder of Felicia Gayle, a one-time reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch found stabbed to death in her University City home. He was convicted in 2001 of first-degree murder, burglary and robbery, among other charges, and sentenced to death, but he has always maintained his innocence.

St. Louis County Circuit Court Judge Bruce Hilton was ordered by the Missouri Supreme Court to hold Wednesday’s hearing after the court blocked an agreement Hilton approved between the inmate and the St. Louis Prosecuting Attorney’s Office that would have spared Williams’ life. The case has pitted Wesley Bell, a local prosecutor running for Congress as a Democrat, against state Attorney General Andrew Bailey, a Republican seeking reelection.

Williams’ innocence claim is championed by attorneys for the Innocence Project and the Midwest Innocence Project. His case raises the specter of a potentially innocent person being put to death, an inherent risk of capital punishment. Indeed, at least 200 people sentenced to death since 1973 have thereafter been exonerated, four of them in Missouri, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

In January, the St. Louis Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, led by Bell, filed a motion to vacate Williams’ conviction, saying DNA evidence that could purportedly exclude Williams as the killer had never been reviewed by a court. Prosecutors were expected to present evidence in court last Wednesday to support that motion, which relied on analysis by three DNA experts who determined DNA testing excluded Williams as the person who wielded the knife used to kill Gayle.

But the hearing did not happen as scheduled as Bailey’s office – which opposed the local prosecutor’s motion – argued new DNA testing showed the knife had “been handled by many actors, including law enforcement” and so would not exonerate Williams.

Prosecutors in court acknowledged the new testing showed the weapon had been mishandled by a former assistant prosecutor and an investigator, the Associated Press reported, contaminating the evidence that was supposed to support Williams’ innocence claim and making it impossible to prove someone else was the perpetrator.

Instead, Bell’s office announced it had reached an agreement with Williams. The consent judgment, approved by the court and Gayle’s family, dictated the inmate would enter a so-called Alford plea of guilty to first-degree murder and in exchange be resentenced to life in prison.

But the attorney general’s office opposed the deal and appealed to the state Supreme Court, which swiftly blocked the agreement. Bailey’s office praised the court’s intervention, while the prosecutor’s office said it still had “concerns about the integrity” of Williams’ conviction.

Bell’s office had raised other issues with Williams’ conviction, claiming in its motion he was convicted on the testimony of two unreliable informants who were facing their own legal troubles and were further incentivized by $10,000 in reward money.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

The-CNN-Wire
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