In the US, an imam was executed for a murder he did not commit
Missouri imam Marcellus "Khalifa" Williams, who was convicted of murder, was executed by lethal injection on September 24, despite prosecutors saying he may be innocent.
Williams' attorneys and St. Louis County District Attorney Wesley Bell filed a joint motion on Sept. 21 asking the Missouri Supreme Court to delay the execution for a "more extensive review."
However, the execution was carried out at the Bonne Terre prison and the executed man was pronounced dead at 18:10 local time.
Williams, 55, was sentenced to death in 2001 for the 1998 murder of journalist Felicia Gale, who was found stabbed to death in her St. Louis home. He was sentenced in 2015 and 2017.
Prosecutors said the new DNA evidence showed that Williams' DNA was not found on the murder weapon.
In its ruling, the state Supreme Court noted that the DNA was caused by the assistant prosecutor and the detective improperly handling the knife without gloves.
Williams' lawyers say the trial was riddled with errors. They also argued that the verdict was implicitly racially discriminatory because, according to them, black jurors were not allowed to sit in the trial.
However, the Missouri Supreme Court rejected requests to overturn the execution.
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