CNN
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The Missouri Supreme Court has blocked a deal that would have resulted in death row inmate Marcellus Williams being re-sentenced to life in prison without parole on Thursday after new DNA tests hampered his claim of innocence.
Instead, the state Supreme Court ordered the lower court to vacate the settlement order, hold the previously scheduled evidentiary hearing and announce the results by September 13 or explain why it was not necessary.
Williams has long insisted he was not the killer of Felicia Gayle, a former St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter who was found stabbed to death in her University City home in 1998. His execution is scheduled for September 24.
A plea agreement was announced Wednesday that will see Williams receive a life sentence after he pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the Alford plea, which generally allows defendants to maintain their innocence while acknowledging that it is not in their best interest to go to trial given the evidence against them.
The key step toward Wednesday’s agreement was the results of a new DNA test – a report from the Missouri Attorney General’s Office was dated Monday, two days before the crucial hearing. Those tests showed that the evidence had been mishandled, complicating Williams’ claim of innocence, the Associated Press reported.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
