ST. LOUIS (AP) - The Missouri Supreme Court has called off the scheduled execution for a man convicted of killing a former newspaper reporter, state officials said Thursday.
The court withdrew the execution warrant for Marcellus Williams, 46, whose lethal injection was scheduled for next Wednesday. A court spokeswoman declined to discuss the reason for the court's action, which doesn't preclude a new death warrant from being issued later.
After a state record 10 executions in 2014, Williams' execution was the first scheduled in Missouri this year.
Williams was convicted of the 1998 fatal stabbing of Lisha Gayle, a former reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch who left the paper in 1992.
Williams' attorneys had asked the courts to stop the execution, citing a lack of evidence. They also sought additional DNA testing they said could prove Williams was innocent.
Defense attorney Kent Gipson said the court did not disclose its reasons for granting the stay of execution.
"There's no guarantee we're going to get what we asked for," he said, referring to the request for new DNA tests. "The only guarantee is that he won't get executed next week."
Messages left with the Missouri Attorney General's Office were not returned.
Williams was burglarizing Gayle's University City home when he realized she was in the shower. He took a knife from the kitchen and attacked her when she came downstairs, stabbing her more than 20 times before stealing a laptop computer and other items.
Gipson has said hairs found at the crime scene were never tested for DNA. He said microscopic analysis showed they did not match Williams, the victim, or her husband. But U.S. District Judge Rodney Sippel dismissed a suit seeking release of the evidence for testing, calling it "frivolous."
Attorneys for the state argued against the DNA tests. "This is not a case in which biological trace evidence has not been tested, and if tested could exculpate petitioner," the state claimed in court documents.