Statement on Execution of Marcellus Khaliifah Williams

President Nimrod Chapel, Jr. • September 24, 2024

Missouri's Culture of Death and Jim Crow Legacy Continue

The Missouri State Conference of the NAACP is heartsick to learn of compounding rulings from the Missouri Supreme Court and the Supreme Court of the United States, denying stays of execution for Marcellus Khaliifah Williams. More than one and a half million people at this point have petitioned the governor of Missouri to stay the execution. Singatures are continuing to come in even after the printed petitions were delivered to the Governor this afternoon. The choice of Attorney General Bailey and Governor Parson to work against a local prosecutor to move forward with an execution is disheartening and shows a lack of respect between the three branches of government we work so hard to preserve.

 

Juries are sacrosanct, and their determinations are not to be violated, but when African-Americans are prevented from being on the jury simply because of the skin color given to them by our creator, this cannot be the rule. When evidentiary rules require the State to safeguard evidence but failed to do so, the original result must be questioned. In this case, the murder item knife was touched so many times that DNA samples cannot be cleanly retrieved. Common sense tells us when the evidence cannot be relied on, it must be thrown out, and if there is no evidence, a conviction cannot stand. When witnesses are paid to testify, and their testimony is unsupported by physical evidence, there must be accountability and any resulting conviction must be questioned. 

 

Tonight's execution may be another cautionary tale from the same state that has already produced the most audacious Jim Crow laws still taught in history classes today. From the sickening endorsement of slavery through the Missouri Compromise, to the Dred Scott decision and all the way through the recent decision to lessen the protections of the Missouri Human Rights Act, there must be some acknowledgment from the Republican and Democratic elected officials, who are sustaining this culture of death. Our government must take ownership of what they’ve created. We are supposedly a pro-life state, but where are the pro-life legislators who weep openly for the death of unborn children when their elected officials decide to take a life in the face of overwhelming evidence, massive public outcry, and the prosecutor in charge of the case arguing against it. The lives of black Missourians are valued less in Missouri. 


The Missouri NAACP, led by black Missourians, issued a Travel Advisory in 2017 so that our brothers and sisters will know that Missouri is not a place where black people can expect to live safely and quietly. Black Missourians know that if you live here, you have to be very careful about what you do and how you do it. There is a system of justice where it doesn’t matter whether you’re on the streets, in a hospital, at school, on the sidewalk, or in your own home, if you’re black, the law as it applies to you is desperately different than for the rest of Missourians. We know that if you’re traveling through the state, you should be extra careful or have a local with you because not only do you not know the jurisdictions that might harm you the most, but the people that you rely on for assistance might make you a ghost. We regularly have conversations with our young family members, that if you have an alternative to being here, you would be better off financially, physically, and mentally in any other state. Missouri's government systems look the other way when black children are attacked or black women go missing, but if a white person calls the police because they feel uncomfortable with something a black man is doing in a car wash, the black man is sent to prison. We got the word out in our Travel Advisory and we continue to issue the same warning today.


The Missouri state conference suggest kindly that individuals who have a capacity to lend their voice to equality and justice do so in a way that not only elects more anti-death legislators, but that also supports institutions such as churches, the NAACP, Missourians to Abolish the death penalty, and other civil rights organizations immediately. The cost to us and others of not doing so maybe far greater for our families communities and state than I could ever express now.

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