Missouri executes man who many believed innocent – National & International News – TUE 24Sep2024

Missouri executes man who many believed innocent.

US rushing more troops to Middle East amid Israel-Lebanon war.

NATIONAL NEWS

Missouri executes man who many believed innocent 

Today, the state of Missouri executed Marcellus Williams, 55, by lethal injection. Williams was convicted in 2001 for the 1998 murder of a former newspaper reporter, Felicia Gayle. Williams had been the subject of a years-long campaign seeking to overturn his sentence and order a new trial in light of evidence that has come out in the decades since his conviction.

The main evidence against Williams came from the testimony of two informants who claimed that Williams had confessed to Gayle’s murder. One of these was a former cellmate of Williams, who was seeking a monetary reward and help with his own criminal case. The other was a former girlfriend of Williams, who had been seen in possession of the victim’s laptop, which she then gave to Williams to sell. The informants’ stories of how the murder unfolded contradicted each other and the evidence in the case.

There was no evidence at the scene of the crime scene, an extremely brutal, up-close stabbing death, which connected Williams to the crime. Additionally, there were concerns that the lead prosecutor at the time had wrongly dismissed potential jurors on the basis of their race. Williams was Black and the victim in the case was white. 

The victim’s family, and even the office which once led Williams’ prosecution, called for a stay of execution. Despite these concerns and pleas for clemency, Missouri’s State Supreme Court ruled that there was insufficient evidence of actual innocence to grant a stay of execution. Missouri’s Republican Gov. Mike Parson also refused request to halt Williams’ execution. 

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INTERNATIONAL NEWS

US rushing more troops to Middle East amid Israel-Lebanon war 

Pentagon press secretary Major General Pat Ryder announced that the US is sending more troops to the Middle East as hostilities escalate between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. Ryder did not say how many troops were being sent. 

There are already over 40,000 US troops in the region, stationed in Syria, Jordan, Iraq and in the Gulf Arab states. Additionally, the aircraft carrier USS Harry s Truman was dispatched to the area yesterday from Norfolk, VA, along with two Navy destroyers and a cruiser. The USS Abraham Lincoln, another aircraft carrier, is currently in the Arabian Gulf. 

Israel’s unfounded “human shields” claim

Over the last two days, Israeli airstrikes have killed well over 500 people in southern Lebanon, the overwhelming majority of them civilians. At least 50 children are among the dead. This is Israel’s deadliest assault on Lebanon since the 2006 war. 

Following a now familiar playbook, Israel’s military and civilian leaders have justified their strikes on civilian targets with the claim that Hezbollah is stashing rockets and other weapons in civilian homes. There is no evidence to back up this claim. Hezbollah is known to have launch sites in specially-built facilities deep in the mountains. The sites are generally located far away from civilian areas and their rugged location affords them some protection against Israeli strikes. 

Despite this, Israel has issued warnings (often in English, curiously) urging civilians in southern Lebanon to evacuate north. Israeli officials have spoken openly about desiring to push Lebanese population centers away from Lebanon’s southern border. Given the long history of hostilities between Israel and Lebanon, this may very well be a prelude to an Israeli invasion in hopes of reoccupying Southern Lebanon. Israel tried and failed to accomplish this in 2006.

Israel occupied much of Southern Lebanon between 1985 and 2000, when Hezbollah militants drove them out. Hezbollah’s resistance thwarted Israel’s attempt to retake the territory six years later. That strategic defeat was and remains a major embarrassment for Israel’s military and political leadership.