#Missouri Supreme Court

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Jazsmin Halliburton and Matthew Sanders at KMIZ:

The Missouri Supreme Court has overturned a lower court decision that would have removed a question on legalizing abortion from the November ballot. The court heard arguments Tuesday morning and Chief Justice Mary Russell issued a decision a little after 2 p.m. Tuesday. The judges voted by majority to reverse Cole County Circuit Judge Christopher Limbaugh's decision, issued last week. The court ordered Tuesday that the question should appear on the Nov. 5 ballot. Amendment 3, which covers abortion, was certified by the Secretary of State's Office after thousands of petition signatures. The initiative petition that was used to get access to abortion on the ballot received over 380,000 signatures. The amendment would guarantee a right to an abortion until fetal viability.

Rachel Sweet with Missourians for Constitutional Freedom, the group that led the petition drive to get the question on the ballot, said in a statement the decision is a "victory for democracy and reproductive freedom in Missouri." “This ruling is a validation of the more than 380,000 Missourians who signed the petition," the statement says. "This fight was not just about this amendment—it was about defending the integrity of the initiative petition process and ensuring that Missourians can shape their future directly. The Missouri Republican Party called the decision "devastating." "This ruling marks the most dangerous threat to Missouri's pro-life laws in our state's history," the party says in a statement. "Make no mistake -- this amendment, bankrolled by radical out-of-state interest groups, is a direct assault on Missouri families and the values we hold dear."

[fspgrad]

This man is about to be executed. He’s innocent. | Marcellus Williams

[paranormeow7]

the death penalty is lynching. they lynched marcellus williams over the murder of a white woman, which he did not commit. her family knew he was innocent, and now there won’t be justice for her. my state murdered an innocent man instead of finding the real killer. what’s kamala harris gonna do about this one? what will the democrats do about this?

[fromkenari]

If carried out as planned, the executions in Alabama, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Texas will mark the first time in more than 20 years—since July 2003—that five were held in seven days, according to the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center, which takes no position on capital punishment but has criticized the way states carry out executions.

As for how they are being killed, you need to know about this:

Alabama on Thursday is preparing to carry out the nation’s second execution ever using nitrogen gas after becoming the first state to use the new procedure in January. Alan Miller is set to die by the process in which a mask is placed over the inmate’s head that forces the inmate to inhale pure nitrogen.

Khalil Allah and Marcellus Williams both had substantial evidence that they were innocent.

Travis Mullis and Emmanuel Littlejohn are both victims of horrific childhood trauma, violence, and abuse, with Mullis being particularly vulnerable from his mental health state, who even decided to waive his right to a stay of execution.

Alan Miller and Khalil Allah both attempted to be executed previously, and their executioners failed.

None of these men deserve to die this way. Abolish the death penalty.

[thashining]

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[billhader]

🫡🫡🫡 the vast amount of grief and sorrow we as people are expected to suppress on a daily basis in order to keep the machine moving is becoming more and more unbearable every day 🫡🫡🫡

[uboat53]

You might assume that keeping a man who's been proven innocent in a court of law in prison would violate the Bill of Rights but, according the State of Missouri, you'd be wrong.

We should all hope that the US Supreme Court finds otherwise, this case should be as open and shut as any that has ever been filed.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

David A. Lieb and Jim Salter at AP, via HuffPost:

BONNE TERRE, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri man was executed Tuesday for breaking into a woman’s home and killing her, despite calls by her family and the prosecutor’s office that put him on death row to let him serve out the rest of his life in prison. Marcellus Williams, 55, was convicted in the 1998 killing of Lisha Gayle, who was repeatedly stabbed during the burglary of her suburban St. Louis home.

Williams’ hopes of having his sentence commuted to life in prison suffered dual setbacks Monday when, almost simultaneously, Republican Gov. Mike Parson denied him clemency and the Missouri Supreme Court declined to grant him a stay of execution. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to intervene Tuesday. Williams was put to death despite questions his attorneys raised over jury selection at his trial and the handling of evidence in the case. His clemency petition focused heavily on how Gayle’s relatives wanted Williams’ sentence commuted to life without the possibility of parole. “The family defines closure as Marcellus being allowed to live,” the petition stated. “Marcellus’ execution is not necessary.” Last month, Gayle’s relatives gave their blessings to an agreement between the St. Louis County prosecuting attorney’s office and Williams’ attorneys to commute the sentence to life in prison. But acting on an appeal from Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s Office, the state Supreme Court nullified the agreement.

Williams was among death row inmates in five states who were scheduled to be put to death in the span of a week — an unusually high number that defies a yearslong decline in the use and support of the death penalty in the U.S. The first was carried out Friday in South Carolina. Texas was also slated to execute a prisoner on Tuesday evening. Gayle, 42, was a social worker and former St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter. Prosecutors at Williams’ trial said he broke into her home on Aug. 11, 1998, heard the shower running and found a large butcher knife. Gayle was stabbed 43 times when she came downstairs. Her purse and her husband’s laptop were stolen.

[...] Tuesday marked the third time Williams had faced execution. He was less than a week away from lethal injection in January 2015 when the state Supreme Court called it off, allowing time for his attorneys to pursue additional DNA testing. Williams was hours from being executed in August 2017 when then-Gov. Eric Greitens, a Republican, granted a stay. Greitens appointed a panel of retired judges to examine the case. But that panel never reached a conclusion. Questions about DNA evidence also led St. Louis Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell to request a hearing challenging Williams’ guilt. But days before the Aug. 21 hearing, new testing showed that DNA on the knife belonged to members of the prosecutor’s office who handled it without gloves after the original crime lab tests.

Marcellus Williams was unjustly executed last night at the prison in Bonne Terre, MO.

See Also:

The Guardian: Missouri executes Marcellus Williams despite prosecutors’ push to overturn conviction

[iselenris]

his names is Kahliifa!!

he converted to Islam refer to him correctly.

Poem by Marcellus Williams

source

call script to urge the state not to kill him

[iguessweallcrazyithinktho]

Remember Khaliifah Marcellus Williams! A black Muslim man falsely accused. Remember that he's innocent. Remember that the governor of Missouri, mike Parson who had the opportunity to save this man's life, decided not to. Remember all but three supreme court justices decided his life wasn't worth saving either. Remember his face. Remember his Last words. And remember how fucked up this country is

Rest in peace Marcellus

[trendynewsnow]

New Legal Challenge to Mifepristone Regulations by Conservative States

New Lawsuit Challenges Abortion Pill Mifepristone Regulations A renewed legal battle has emerged over the abortion pill mifepristone, as a lawsuit that the Supreme Court dismissed earlier this year has been reintroduced with new complexities. This case, spearheaded by the conservative attorneys general of Missouri, Idaho, and Kansas, targets the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and is filed in…

[cyarsk5230]

no! Are YOU stupid?! A Dem DA wanted it stopped. He was overruled by a REPUBLICAN attorney general; a REPUBLICAN state Supreme Court; a REPUBLICAN governor; and six REPUBLICANS on the US Supreme Court.

[viewwrangler]

who cares if you're innocent any more?

Apparently, our polity, at all levels, seems to have decided that it no longer matters if evidence of actual innocence appears at some point after a person has been sentenced to death. "Finality" has become the value sought after, not justice. When even the prosecutors and the victim's family argue that a person is probably innocent, and the governor, the state supreme court and even the US Supreme Court decide that the execution should move forward in the name of "finality" ... something is dreadfully dreadfully wrong. And it's going to be immensely difficult to set the system right, if that's even possible.

And, of course, it's far too late for the innocent people who have been murdered by the state. Apparently, the state is now in favor of committing outright and unjust murders, rather than simply finding the truth behind them and punishing them appropriately (whatever "appropriate" would be).