A Missouri man, Marcellus Williams, is set to be executed by lethal injection on Tuesday evening after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the state's decision to proceed with the execution. Williams, 55, has maintained his innocence in the 1998 murder of Lisha Gayle, a social worker and former newspaper reporter who was fatally stabbed during a burglary of her suburban St. Louis home. The execution is scheduled despite appeals from Liberal Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson, Elena Kagan, and Sonia Sotomayor to spare Williams' life.

The Missouri Supreme Court and Governor Mike Parson declined to intervene on Williams' behalf, and his hopes for clemency and a stay of execution suffered dual setbacks when both requests were denied. Williams had sought to have his sentence commuted to life in prison, citing revelations of racial bias during the jury selection process, but these claims were dismissed by the state Supreme Court. Parson, who has never granted clemency in a death penalty case, expressed his belief in Williams' guilt and rejected the attempts to delay the execution.

Williams' execution is part of a concerning trend with inmates in five states scheduled to be executed within a week, a notably high number that contrasts with a decline in support for the death penalty in the United States. Despite efforts by St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell to set aside Williams' sentence due to doubts about his guilt, the execution is set to proceed as planned. This marks the third time Williams has faced execution, with previous instances being called off for further DNA testing and examination of the case.