On September 24th 2024, Marcellus Williams ate his last meal of chicken wings and tater tots and wrote his final statement, “All Praise Be to Allah in Every Situation!” Each person is a universe. Williams was a son, brother, grandfather, Imam, poet, friend, and activist. While incarcerated, Williams embraced the religion of Islam and wrote about Palestinian children. Williams, like all of us, should have had a beautiful and long life. Instead, he was robbed; first, when he was arrested for a crime he may not have committed. Then, he was robbed again of more than two decades of his life that he served for that crime. Right when the state had the chance to right its wrongs, the Missouri Supreme Court and Governor Abbott both refused to intervene and allowed the execution to be carried out. That’s the thing about the death penalty. There is no going back, saying we are better now, and hoping to wipe our hands clean. The State of Missouri, backed by the imprudent negligence of the federal government, took a life that wasn’t theirs and with no moral authority.
