THE STORY:  

On Tuesday, September 24, 2024 the state of Missouri executed Marcellus Williams for a murder that he consistently maintained that he did not commit, even prosecutors weren't sure he committed it. 

FROM THE - Equal Justice Initiative 

 St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell’s Statement:

“Marcellus Williams should be alive today,” Mr. Bell said in a statement shortly after the execution. “If there is even the shadow of a doubt of innocence, the death penalty should never be an option. This outcome did not serve the interests of justice.”

Prosecutor Works to Correct “Manifest Injustice”

In January, the St. Louis County prosecutor’s office filed a 63-page motion to vacate Mr. Williams’s 2001 conviction in the killing of a journalist in her home in the St. Louis suburbs.

The prosecuting attorney wrote that new DNA evidence, increasing doubts about the credibility of the State’s key witnesses, and constitutional defects including ineffective counsel and racially discriminatory jury selection at trial compelled him to ask the circuit court “to correct this manifest injustice.” 

.............

Despite statewide protests, Gov. Mike Parson denied clemency and, reportedly for the first time, Missouri carried out an execution over opposition from both the prosecutor’s office and the victim’s family.

Mr. Williams was the 100th person executed in Missouri since 1989, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

WHAT DOES THIS PAINTING MEAN?: 

From 1883 to 1941 - 3,265 Black men have been lynched in the United States. (THAT WE KNOW OF!) 

For comparison - Total Lynching's Between That Time Period: 4,467

Women: 99

Mexican/Mexican Descent: 71

Native American: 38

Chinese: 10

Japanese: 1

Black Men: 3,265

Since 1973: 

At least 100 death row exonerees have been Black 

At least 189 people have been exonerated for wrongful death convictions 

Between 1910 and 1950: 

75% of executions in the South have been Black individuals even though they made up less than a quarter of the Souths population. 

Between 1930 and 1967: 

90% of the men executed for rape in the United States have been Black men. 

Between 1988 and 1994: 

The Bush and Clinton Administration approved death penalty prosecutions against 37 defendants

White: 4

Hispanic: 4

Black: 29 

WHY THE LYRICS IN THE PAINTING?:

“Strange Fruit” This anti-lynching poem was written by Abel Meeropol, a teacher, songwriter, and member of the American Communist Party. He published it in a union publication in 1937 and then set it to music. It was most famously performed by Billy Holiday, who first sang “Strange Fruit” in 1939.