From the roots of language and the heart of humanity blossoms the word “justice,” intertwined with the essence of equality and equity. In its truest form, justice is the sacred act of rebalancing the scales of life, gently tipping them toward justice where there is imbalance.
As an abolitionist, I envision a world where justice is not a weapon of punishment, but a tender hand that nourishes and heals our communities. When a poor person steals a loaf of bread, true justice does not lock him in a cell, but sows the seeds of plenty so that hunger is only a distant memory.
In our misguided pursuit of retribution, we imprison the brightest lights of our generation.
These souls, forged into flint by the weight of oppression, hold the potential to inspire change. But what does it say about our society when gentle genius and deep insight are shackled and hidden from the world behind bars?
Take Marcellus “Khaliifah” Williams, for example. Khaliifah has spent the last 24 years of his life on death row for a crime he has proven to be unrelated to. His execution date is September 24.
Khaliifah is a father, a prolific poet, a devout Muslim, and serves as an imam at the Potosi Correctional Center. For the past 24 years, Khaliifah has served a spotless sentence without incident. During that time, Khaliifah has developed a habit of writing poems that delve deeply into the human experience.
His poems are haunting perspectives on his life, his relationships, and the world at large. Through his words, Khaliifah reminds us how imprisonment can rob the world of its genius and beauty.
When I was a teacher, the children with the most behavioral problems were children for whom the classroom model didn’t work. Each of them had a great fire inside them that wasn’t often stoked or honored by the educational system. What was considered disruptive behavior was simply a child’s attempt to meet their own needs in a system that neglected them. The price of trying to take care of themselves was often detention, expulsion from the classroom, and other punitive measures.
These responses taught our kids (because they’re really ours) that society was going to reject them for being themselves, that they were wrong for not fitting in and doing so loudly, and that they could not trust these institutions to hold them with the respect, attention, and tenderness that they deserved.
These children grow up to be adults who must constantly make decisions about their survival in a world that does not value, honor, or believe in them. Some of them become artists, some do not even live to the age of 30, and some end up moving from prison to prison.
And yet there are other adults who are caught up in the racial profiling of an institution that disproportionately criminalizes and punishes black men. In Khaliifah’s case, the St. Louis County District Attorney reviewed the DNA results and filed a motion to overturn Williams’ conviction, arguing that the DNA evidence clearly exonerated him. Still, Attorney General Andrew Bailey remained steadfast in his assessment that the state should proceed with the execution.
The district court scheduled a hearing for the morning of August 21 to consider this exculpatory evidence and consider the motion. The evidentiary hearing was dismissed in favor of a plea bargain. The verdict resulted in the suspension of the execution in exchange for an Alford plea in which Williams agreed to a life sentence without parole. It must be emphasized that this is not an admission of guilt.
To date, there is no evidence linking Williams to the 1998 murder of Felicia Gayle, and Khaliifah maintains his innocence.
If Khaliifah’s story shows us one thing, it is that, at its core, this system cannot deliver true justice.
In a world where the voices and views of “undesirables” are quickly dehumanized, organizations like MADP (Missourians to Abolish the Death Penalty), Decarcerate KC, and A Nation In Exile are fighting to amplify the voices, stories, and views of those relegated to the shadows. These three organizations brought together local performance poets from our KC community to host a public reading of the works of Marcellus “Khaliifah” Williams.
If you’d like to learn more about his story, how you can get involved, or about these organizations and their work in our community, you can attend the public reading at Turnsol Books on August 29. Doors open at 7pm and the show begins at 8pm. This reading is the closing night of an exhibition called CTRL + Burn, which features work by currently and formerly incarcerated artists.
