US death row inmate to get life in prison after DNA testing weakens conviction

22/8/2024 12:30

        A Missouri inmate convicted of fatally stabbing a woman in 1998 will avoid the death penalty and instead be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, prosecutors said on Wednesday, after DNA testing of the murder weapon did not match him.
        
        Marcellus Williams, 55, who had been scheduled to be put to death next month, will enter what is known as an "Alford plea" to a first-degree murder charge on Thursday as part of a deal with prosecutors that vacates his original conviction.
        
        The plea allows Williams to continue to maintain his innocence, as he has done since the murder, while forgoing a new trial and accepting the recommended sentence.
        
        In an order, Judge Bruce Hilton in St. Louis County Circuit Court said that the St. Louis Prosecuting Attorney's office conceded there were "constitutional errors" during the trial that "undermine confidence" in the verdict. He also noted that the family of the victim, Felicia "Lisha" Gayle, did not wish for Williams to be executed.