Former St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter Lisha Gayle was 42 when she was killed. Now with her killer set for execution, her family hopes for finality.

With the end of his life approaching, Missouri death row inmate Marcellus Williams was offered an opportunity to make a final statement to the world. His words were few — neither proclaiming innocence nor admitting guilt in the 1998 murder of Lisha Gayle,

A Missouri man has been executed for the 1998 fatal stabbing of a woman despite calls by her family and the prosecutor’s office that put him on death row to let him serve out the rest of his life in prison.

A Missouri man was executed on Tuesday, according to the state's Department of Corrections, even though the prosecutor's office that secured his murder conviction 21 years ago expressed doubts about the integrity of the case and the victim's family said he should be spared.

Marcellus Williams' attorneys have said that his DNA wasn't found on the murder weapon and that his jury trial was unfair.

Williams was convicted of first-degree murder in the August 1998 stabbing death of Lisha Gayle during a robbery of her suburban St. Louis home. He had long maintained his innocence.