Students gather to mourn the death of Marcellus Williams
Marcellus Williams, 55, died by lethal injection on Sept. 24, 2024 (Courtesy of the Innocence Project)
Students filled the multipurpose room of the Nyumburu Cultural Center on Thursday to mourn the death of a man whose execution by the State of Missouri sparked nationwide controversy.
Marcellus Williams, 55, was executed last Tuesday after he was found guilty of killing Felicia Gayle in 1998, according to court records. Court documents show multiple attempts by Williams and his attorneys, as well as Missouri state prosecutors, to halt his execution due to questions surrounding the handling of DNA evidence used to convict him and allegations that prosecutors eliminated jurors based on race.
Muslim and non-Muslim students at this university came together to mourn the passing of Williams. Student leaders led attendees through prayer and spoke about how to grapple with their emotions and move forward.
“How do we move past this feeling of helplessness? Truth be told, we don’t move past it, we move through it,” Wadi Ahmed, a graduate student studying information systems, said to attendees.
For these students, Williams’ execution was significant. Ahmed says that Williams was important to the Muslim community for the sole fact that he was Muslim.
“There is a saying from the Prophet that [a] believer is the arm of another believer. When one part hurts, all of the body hurts,” Ahmed said.
The event's organizers, university chapters of the Muslim Student Association, Faces of African Muslims, the Black Student Union, the African Student Association and Students for Justice in Palestine, felt it was important to demonstrate unity by inviting students of all backgrounds to attend the service.
“With Marcellus Williams, when everybody petitioned and came together to save the life of one man, that truly shows that power of humanity,” said Kader Keita, an undecided sophomore and the fundraising chair for this university’s chapter of Faces of African Muslims. “That means there’s still good out there; there’s still people who are looking to find justice.”
Hassan Edwan, a graduate student studying machine learning, said he felt that the service was a helpful way to process Williams’ death.
“[The service] made it something that wasn’t only on the internet,” Edwan said. “A community event, in-person, made it more personal.”
However, Edwan also feels that a majority of people at this university don’t understand the significance of this event.
“I think it went over a lot of people’s heads… a lot of people aren’t from the relevant community or from the relevant communities impacted,” Edwan said.
Ahmed hopes the wider university community can show empathy as they reckon with his death.
“At the end of the day you have to realize that we’re hurting, people are genuinely hurting,” Ahmed said.