Each state and federal courts upheld his conviction within the face of a number of appeals, finally rejecting all his arguments on enchantment, together with his problem to the composition of the jury. In 2015, nevertheless, the Missouri Supreme Courtroom ordered further DNA testing, and the outcomes had been startling — in response to three consultants who reviewed the outcomes, Williams’s DNA shouldn’t be on the homicide weapon. As a substitute, there was a combination of DNA from two different males.
In my opening paragraph, I described Williams as “more than likely” harmless. It’s nonetheless attainable that he’s responsible of the crime, however at this level his conviction strains credulity. There’s no bodily proof inserting him on the scene of the crime. As his legal professional, Tricia Rojo Bushnell of the Midwest Innocence Mission, advised me, “There isn’t any eyewitness testimony saying they noticed him” on the crime scene, and “there’s nothing that places him there” aside from the “incentivized” testimony of Cole and Asaro, neither of whom claims to have been with Williams on the Gayles’ home.
I suppose it’s conceivable that Williams broke in and killed Gayle with out leaving any hint proof of his presence whilst an unknown different particular person walked across the scene, leaving fingerprints and DNA on the knife. It’s conceivable, however it’s hardly possible. It’s much more possible that Williams is the sufferer of two unreliable witnesses with different motives.
Regardless of the brand new DNA proof, on Jan. 31, 2017, the Missouri Supreme Courtroom denied Williams’s habeas petition with out briefing and with out listening to oral arguments. Williams additionally petitioned the Republican governor of Missouri, Eric Greitens, for reduction, and on Aug. 22, 2017, Greitens stayed Williams’s execution and convened a board of inquiry to take a better have a look at the case.
However right here’s the place issues go from difficult to downright unusual. The board moved at a glacial tempo and by no means appeared to difficulty a ultimate report. Bushnell advised me that the board did ship inquiries to the attorneys within the case, however its proceedings had been below seal. On June 29, 2023, the present Republican governor of Missouri, Mike Parson, dissolved the panel. In his assertion, the governor mentioned, “We may stall and delay for an additional six years, deferring justice, leaving a sufferer’s household in limbo and fixing nothing.”
