Missouri Supreme Court blocks agreement that would stop execution of death row inmate who claims innocence

Instead, the state Supreme Court in a preliminary writ has directed the St. Louis County Circuit Court to set aside the consent judgment reached Wednesday, hold a previously scheduled evidentiary hearing and issue findings by September 13 – or explain why it should not have to. The lower court may seek an administrative stay of Williams’ execution date on September 24 while the proceedings unfold, the chief justice wrote.

The St. Louis County Circuit Court judge subsequently set the consent judgment aside and scheduled an evidentiary hearing for August 28, according to an order filed Thursday.

Williams has long maintained he did not murder Felicia Gayle, a one-time reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch who was found stabbed to death in her University City home in 1998.

The consent judgment was announced Wednesday dictating Williams receive a life sentence after entering the Alford plea of guilty to first-degree murder, which generally allows a defendant to maintain their innocence while acknowledging it is not in their interest to go to trial given the evidence against them.

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, whose office said it appealed the consent judgment, praised the state Supreme Court’s ruling in a statement Thursday.“It is in the interest of every Missourian that the rule of law is fought for and upheld – every time, without fail,” Bailey said. “I am glad the Missouri Supreme Court recognized that. We look forward to putting on evidence in a hearing like we were prepared to do yesterday.”

Tricia Rojo Bushnell, an attorney for Williams, questioned “who this decision serves or what justice it provides,” pointing out the consent judgment was reached with the support of the office that prosecuted Williams in 2001 and the victim’s family.

“We look forward to presenting the evidence that supports the circuit court’s decision at the hearing next week.”

The pivotal development leading to Wednesday’s deal was the results of new DNA testing – a report provided by the Missouri Attorney General’s Office was dated Monday, two days before this key hearing – which proved the evidence had been mishandled, complicating Williams’ innocence claim, the Associated Press reported.The St. Louis Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, which filed a motion to vacate Williams’ conviction in January, was expected to present DNA evidence in a court hearing Wednesday that it said three DNA experts had determined excluded Williams as the wielder of the knife used to kill Gayle.

But the hearing did not get underway as scheduled, and after several hours the office of Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell announced the consent judgment. Bailey’s office had fought Bell’s motion, indicating in court filings Williams’ execution should proceed, and his office opposed Wednesday’s judgment, it said in a statement.

The DNA test results indicated the evidence would not exonerate Williams, Bailey said Wednesday, but show the knife had “been handled by many actors, including law enforcement,” disputing claims by the inmate’s advocates the DNA would match the true killer.

In court, Special Prosecutor Matthew Jacober, representing the St. Louis Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, acknowledged the new DNA testing showed the weapon had been mishandled by a former assistant prosecutor and an investigator, the Associated Press reported, contaminating the evidence that was supposed to support Williams’ innocence claim and making it impossible to prove someone else was the perpetrator.