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00:00After more than two decades on death row,
00:02Marcellus Williams was killed by lethal injection on Tuesday evening in Missouri,
00:07despite objections from prosecutors who sought to have his conviction overturned.
00:12The 55-year-old, who repeatedly said he was innocent,
00:15was convicted of killing Lisha Gayle in 1998.
00:18He was accused of breaking into her home,
00:20stabbing her to death and stealing several of her belongings.
00:24Many had campaigned against his execution,
00:26from these protesters who took to the streets in Kansas City,
00:30to British billionaire Richard Branson, who bought a full-page advert in a local newspaper
00:35condemning a devastating miscarriage of justice.
00:38But the governor of Missouri pushed for the execution to go ahead, despite protests.
00:44No jury nor court, including at the trial,
00:46appellate and Supreme Court levels, have ever found merit in Mr Williams' innocence claim.
00:52At the end of the day, his guilty verdict and sentence of capital punishment were upheld.
00:57Local prosecutors renounced Williams' conviction,
01:00while the victim's family said they opposed his execution.
01:04No forensic evidence linked him to the murder weapon or crime scene,
01:08and his lawyers argued that DNA evidence was mishandled.
01:13We must all question any system that would allow this to occur.
01:16The execution of an innocent person is the most extreme manifestation of Missouri's obsession
01:20with finality over truth, justice and humanity at any cost.
01:25Sixteen people have been executed in the US so far this year.
01:28Three of them have been in Missouri.