On September 24, Marcellus Williams was executed by the state of Missouri for his alleged role in the 1998 murder of news reporter Felisha Gayle; In the weeks leading up to his execution, a plethora of prominent voices spoke out against the planned killing, claiming it to be an act of murder against yet another innocent black man in an unjust system. 

However, the wave of support for Williams wasn’t enough to stay his execution any longer, and the lethal injection took place at 6:01 p.m. that day. The innocence of Williams is and has been a contentious topic since its beginning, especially with the heavy racial undertones that surround the case. 

 Those that hold the belief of William’s innocence affirm the fact that there is no direct DNA evidence of Williams at the scene. Those who believe Williams was rightfully convicted, assert the fact that Williams had several of Felicia Gayle’s items in his car and that he was a 15 time felon at the time of the crime. 

This case is not an open and shut one, and the ambiguity of who the assailant is should make it clear that the death penalty was completely avoidable, and entirely unnecessary. Capital punishment as a concept is inhumane, sadistic, and statistically untrustworthy.

 According to Attorney Brian Stevenson, author of Just Mercy, one out of every nine inmates on death row are exonerated after their execution. That’s  More than two times as many of those who are on death row are exonerated than ordinary inmates. Still, 27 states follow the dated concept of execution, which according to the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC), has murdered 200 people since 1973.

 People of color, specifically black Americans, have been disproportionately affected by wrongful executions; since 1973, 108 of the 200 people exonerated after their killings were African Americans (54 percent). Another key factor in the death penalties lack of true assistance to people, is the simple truth that killing a person for committing a crime, has no true hindrance on crime itself.

 The DPIC states that no correlation has been found between capital punishment and reduced crime. Not only does it not deter crime, but the death penalty also completely eliminates any chance for an innate to repent. Of course, most inmates may not reach true remediation, but killing them will remove that chance as a whole. 

All of this should be coupled with the fact that, according to PBS, the family of Felicia Gayle, along with her husband,  pleaded to not have Marcellus Williams executed.

Despite the fact that no direct DNA evidence of Marcellus Williams was found in the crime scene, with the state of Missouri tampering with the murder weapon so much that the DNA can’t be directly linked to Williams. Capital punishment is statistically wrong at relatively high rates, according to The Innocence project,  the victim’s family requested not to have the man executed, as well as prosecutors working on the case. Yet, the state of Missouri and the Supreme Court allowed this execution to go through. 

 The intention of capital punishment is clear: To serve justice to those who have been affected by heinous crimes. However, this method, ending a life, is far too dated, and unethical of a concept for a country that champions their progressiveness as strongly as America to hold. 

Ask yourself, should the American people stand idly by, as a tragic, damaging, and oxymoronic way of punishment continues to persist? The answer is clear.