As in many death cases in Missouri, prosecutors violated Marcellus Williams’ rights by excluding African-Americans from serving on Marcellus’ jury, which consisted of 11 white jurors and 1 black juror. Research has found that Missouri prosecutors disproportionately exclude African-Americans from serving on juries. St. Louis County, where Marcellus was sentenced to death row, in particular, has a pattern of troubling racial disparities in capital cases. Andre Cole, executed in 2015, and Kimber Edwards, executed January 2017, were both sentenced by all-white jury. St. Louis County is one of Missouri’s deadliest counties. 80% of Missouri’s total executions are concentrated in just 2.4% of its 114 counties -- this suggests that some regions are home to particularly blood thirsty prosecutors and that Missouri’s death penalty is carried out with disturbing arbitrariness. African-Americans are disproportionately represented on Missouri’s death row relative to the state’s overall population -- less than a quarter of the Missouri’s population is black, yet nearly two-thirds of the Missouri’s death row are black. This overrepresentation of African-Americans on death row strongly suggests racial bias in the administration of justice. In Missouri, homicides involving white victims are 7 times more likely to result in an execution than those involving African-Americans. Homicides involving white, female victims are 14 times more likely to result in an execution than those involving African-American male victims. This shows how Missouri’s death penalty values some lives as more “worthy” of “justice” than others. Learn more here: http://www.madpmo.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Marcellus-Williams-Flyer.pdf