NAACP president urges Missouri governor to halt execution planned for next week

Associated Press

The president of the NAACP is urging Missouri’s governor to halt the execution of Marcellus Williams scheduled for Tuesday, writing that executing a Black man who says he was wrongfully convicted would amount to a “horrible miscarriage of justice.” Meanwhile, Attorneys with the Midwest Innocence Project on Wednesday filed an emergency appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court seeking a stay. They’ve also asked a federal court and the Missouri Supreme Court to intervene, and asked Gov. Mike Parson to grant clemency. Johnson wrote that executing Williams would perpetuate a history of racial injustice in the use of the death penalty in Missouri and elsewhere. The NAACP is opposed to the death penalty.