More than 100 University of Wisconsin-Madison students and community members attended a Library Mall vigil Friday to mourn Marcellus “Khaliifah” Williams, a Black man executed by the state of Missouri last week over a chorus of objections and serious doubts surrounding his murder conviction.
Williams was convicted of first-degree murder, robbery and burglary in 2001 for the 1998 killing of Felicia “Lisha” Gayle, a 42-year-old reporter stabbed 43 times in her home. His conviction relied on two witnesses who later said they were paid for their testimony, according to the Midwest Innocence Project, and 2016 DNA testing conducted on the murder weapon “definitively excluded” Williams.
The vigil, hosted by the Wisconsin Black Student Union (WBSU), included speeches, a Muslim dua prayer and six minutes of silence to honor Williams as candle-holding attendees linked arms to form a giant circle. The event’s atmosphere was at turns somber and celebratory, with many attendees crying and hugging one another.
Despite always maintaining his innocence, and over the objections of the original prosecutor who obtained his murder conviction and the victim’s family, Republican Gov. Mike Parson and the Missouri Supreme Court ordered the execution to go through.
“We found out about the execution of Marcellus during one of our weekly meetings, and it was very important to us that we recognize a death occurred,” WBSU finance intern Godson Safo Ansah told The Daily Cardinal. “Whenever these types of things happen [...] I just really hope we take the time to make sure the names are engraved into history.”
Ansah accredited the idea for the vigil to WBSU volunteer coordinator Marques Watts and encouraged people to honor Williams through voting and political involvement, alongside WBSU Outreach Director Deanna Fratter and other student speakers.
“[Gov.] Mike Parson will forever be something that Williams never will — a murderer,” Fratter said.
Attendees at the vigil expressed frustration, despair and resolution to act in wake of Williams’ death.
“It's very important to pay attention to people who are incarcerated because they're hidden from our society. So even those who are innocent, those who are not innocent, they deserve your attention because they’re a humongous chunk of our population that is just erased from you,” UW-Madison student Zara Bangash told the Cardinal.
Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) board member Shafiq, who did not share his last name for fear of retribution, read aloud a poem written by Williams on death row titled “The Perplexing Smiles of the Children of Palestine.” “In the face of apex ignorance and ethnic cleansing by any definition, still your laughter can be heard,” one sentence read.
SJP spokesperson Dahlia Saba told the Cardinal Williams’ solidarity with Palestine represents the “interconnection of injustice” Black Americans and Palestinians face.
“The violence we see inflicted by our government on people abroad is the same violence we see the [U.S.] government inflict on its own people,” Saba said. “Carrying out Marcellus’ legacy means ending its imperialist arm and the way it folds back on people at home.”
Other students, particularly those who were Black and Muslim, focused on Williams’ execution as a symbol of racial injustice in America’s legal system and use of the death penalty. Fewer than half of all states, including Wisconsin, have outlawed the death penalty, which critics have long described as racially unjust.
“It’s the same history repeating itself, and no one in the system wants to help our communities,” student Asma Sulieman said. “I don’t think I have any hope in the justice system to hold me versus someone who’s white to the same level of accountability.”
An immigrant studying at UW-Madison, who wished to stay anonymous for fear of deportation, said he hopes Williams is remembered as “one of the last people to go through this.” The student underlined that abolishing the death penalty would require widespread effort.
“There’s what, [52,000] people at UW alone,” the student asked, before taking a long pause. “We’re not [all] here. My prayer is that more and more of us recognize it takes everything and everyone to get to the world we’re all dreaming of.”
Sreejita Patra is a senior staff writer and the former summer ad sales manager for The Daily Cardinal. She has written for breaking news, campus news and arts and has done extensive reporting on the 2024 presidential race. She also covered the Oregon Village Board for the Oregon Observer.
