Blood boiling, we are all cooked. Marcellus “Khaliifah” Williams was put to death and I’m angry that there was nothing we could do about it.

I texted MARCELLUS to 97016. “Thx for joining Marcellus’ team!” a message from the Innocence Project read.

I made posts and shared them on my social media platform. I posted it to my Instagram story. 

I received more text updates: “We’ve already driven more than 40,000 calls toward Gov. Parson, but we can’t let up now. There’s no time to waste. Call him now right now & urge him to save Marcellus’ life: 417-373-3400.”

I signed the petition with 854,426 others in hopes of stopping his scheduled execution by lethal injection on September 24th for the 1998 murder of Felicia Gayle. Williams had maintained his innocence. It was an execution that her family wanted commuted to life imprisonment. 

His defense said DNA evidence proved Williams was innocent. The St. Louis County prosecuting attorney agreed. 

After reviewing the DNA results, a motion to vacate Williams’ conviction was filed. Still, an execution date was set.

I counted down the days. While I waited, Missouri’s supreme court and governor refused to grant a stay of execution. The following day, the U.S. Supreme Court did the same.

“Khaliifah is a kind and thoughtful man, who has spent his last years supporting those around him in his role as Imam,” Tricia Rojo Bushnell, one of his attorneys said on his pending death. “We will remember him for his deeply evocative poetry and his love for and service to his family and his community. … The world will be a worse place without him.”

I counted down the hours. Just give him a little more time. 

I did everything I could, but they killed him anyway. Marcellus “Khaliifah” Williams died by lethal injection around 6 p.m. CT at the state prison in Bonne Terre. 

Another of Williams’ attorneys, Larry Komp, said in a statement after the execution: “While he would readily admit to the wrongs he had done throughout his life, he never wavered in asserting his innocence of the crime for which he was put to death tonight. Although we are devastated and in disbelief over what the State has done to an innocent man, we are comforted that he left this world in peace.”

Williams’ last statement read, “All Praise Be to Allah In Every Situation!!!” Even in the face of death, his faith remained. 

Mine, on the other hand, was fleeting. I really wanted to believe things would be different this time. I trusted the process and that we could save his life.

But time and time again, I am confronted with yet another injustice. I’m tired of holding out hope. Besides, has America not had enough of this?

“They will do it even though the prosecutor doesn’t want him to be executed, the jurors who sentenced him to death don’t want him executed and the victims themselves don’t want him to be executed,” Tricia Rojo Bushnell told CNN’s Jake Tapper. “We have a system that values finality over fairness and this is the result that we will get from that.”

In a poem titled “At last… Another heartbeat,” Williams wrote:

the silhouettes of their bond visible still at the last glow of the sun
they experience each other and the life of the night it begins to stir
standing there in silence holding hands
no rush to go back inside
there is so much beauty and comfort in being in love and just being…
-amidst sounds of buzzing
chirps
crickets
the pleasant but irregular blowing of the wind
fireflies dancing in step with the light of the moon
how strange it is to become aware of another’s heartbeat but forget one’s one—
finally love.

I hope Marcellus “Khaliifah” Williams left this world knowing that hundreds of thousands of people wanted him to live. I pray that wherever he is, there is finally love in his midst.

Read the “Statement Regarding the Execution of Khaliifah Ibn Rayford Daniel Known as Marcellus Williams” here.