Shame and the State of Missouri

An innocent man is dead, and many of us are responsible.

Yesterday, the state of Missouri murdered Marcellus Williams.

He was likely innocent of the murder conviction that led him to be on death row.

The DNA on the murder weapon did not match Mr. Williams.

The county prosecutor didn’t think that Mr. Williams was guilty.

The family of the murder victim did not want him to be executed.

But the Republican governor of Missouri, the state Attorney General, state Supreme Court, and the conservative majority US Supreme Court refused to halt the execution.

But it was not an execution.

It was cold-blooded murder.

Once applied, the death penalty cannot be reversed.

There’s no financial settlement capable of bringing Mr. Williams back to life.

Thoughts and prayers won’t comfort his loved ones.

The finality of the death penalty means that it should only be applied when there is no legal, ethical, moral, or common-sense question about guilt or innocence.

There were far too many questions about this case for Mr. Williams to have been put to death.

Marcellus Williams was murdered.

He was not murdered in a back alley.

His death was not the result of a robbery gone bad.

He wasn’t killed as a result of a mass shooting.

No, Mr. Williams was the victim of a state-sanctioned homicide planned and enacted by a disreputable governor, a callous state attorney general, an irresponsible state supreme court, and a craven, duplicitous national Supreme Court.

This is the consequence of voting poorly or not at all.

We vote because we want a certain person in the White House, but we also vote for fair, honest, representative government at all levels.

We vote because a confluence of errant political motivations can lead to an innocent man being executed.

We vote because we need mayors, state legislators, attorney generals, governors, senators, US representatives, judges and presidents who serve all people, not just people of a certain color or certain political parties.

Missouri’s shame is shared by all who think their vote doesn’t count, by those who waste their vote on third party candidates, and by people who are fooled once, twice, and always.

Marcellus Williams has been removed from this veil of tears.

His agony is over, but until we vote all the time, at all levels, and for the proper candidates, our national disgrace is far from over.