Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens Tuesday issued a stay of execution for Marcellus Williams.
In a release early Tuesday afternoon, Greitens said new information prompted him to issue the stay and appoint a Gubernatorial Board of Inquiry for Williams.
"A sentence of death is the ultimate, permanent punishment. To carry out the death penalty, the people of Missouri must have confidence in the judgment of guilt," Greitens said in the release.
"It was definitely a surprise," Tricia Bushnell, executive director of the Midwest Innocence Project, said.
The board will include five people - all appointed by the governor - that will be able to look further into Williams' case. The board would then make a recommendation to the governor on if Williams should be executed.
Bushnell explained, "The panel has subpoena power. They can request evidence, have documents and all kinds of things delivered to them and they will sift through that and look through that and come to their own independent conclusion."
Williams was scheduled to be executed Tuesday at 6 p.m.
Supporters of Williams cite new DNA testing as part of the reason to stay the execution. "The court issued a stay for him in 2015, said let's go ahead and do DNA testing we think this is important. Then, for reasons that none of us know or understand, didn't have a hearing on the results of that evidence," Bushnell said.
Williams was sentenced to death in the 1998 fatal stabbing of Lisha Gayle, a former St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter who left journalism for social work. Authorities say she surprised Williams while he was robbing her home in the St. Louis suburb of University City.
The ACLU of Missouri issued a statement Tuesday praising the governor for the decision.
"We are relieved that Governor Eric Greitens stayed the execution of Marcellus Williams to allow for a board of inquiry to review Mr. Williams' case in light of new evidence," ACLU of Missouri executive director Jeffrey Mittman said in a release.
When it comes to the recent attention placed on Williams' case, Bushnell said, "I think it matters. I think when the state says we're going to execute someone and we're going to do this in the citizen's name, that it absolutely matters how citizens feel about it. Here there are very, very real questions and people spoke out about it."
