Marcellus Williams was put to death by lethal injection overnight(Image: Courtesy of Marcellus Williams’ legal team)

Death row inmate Marcellus Williams' eight final words as he is executed despite calls to spare life

Marcellus Williams, 55, was put to death by lethal injection overnight for the 1998 murder of Lisha Gayle, one of five people set to be put to death in the United States this week

by · The Mirror

An inmate on Death Row for the murder of a woman whose home he broke into, before stabbing her several times, has been executed - with eight final words.

Marcellus Williams, 55, was convicted for the 1998 killing of Lisha Gayle, who was stabbed during the burglary of her home in St. Louis. Despite Gayle's relatives calling for Williams' sentence to be commuted to life without the possibility of parole, he was ordered to be put to death in Missouri by lethal injection.

Williams' son and two attorneys watched from another room. No one was present on behalf of the victim's family.

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Lisha Gayle was killed in 1998( Image: Find a Grave)

The Department of Corrections released a brief statement Williams had written ahead of time. It read: "All Praise Be to Allah In Every Situation!!!"

Human rights group the NAACP had been among those urging the execution be cancelled. Group president Derrick Johnson said in a statement: “Tonight, Missouri lynched another innocent Black man.”

Last night was the third time Williams had faced execution, after getting reprieves in 2015 and 2017. Republican Missouri Gov. Mike Parson and the state Supreme Court rejected his appeals in quick succession Monday, and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to intervene hours before he was put to death.

The inmate had suffered through two previous reprieves before last night( Image: Missouri Department of Corrections)

Mr Parson said: “No juror, nor judge, has ever found Williams' innocence claim to be credible.”

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.

Williams was among death row inmates in five states who were scheduled to be put to death in the span of a week. The first was carried out Friday in South Carolina.

There are two remaining scheduled executions, in Alabama and Oklahoma, due this week, which will mark the first time in more than 20 years - since July 2003 - five were held in seven days.