Whether due process requires reversal when a prosecutor concedes constitutional errors in a capital conviction and no longer seeks to defend the case

QUESTIONS PRESENTED The St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney, Wesley Bell, moved to vacate the conviction of capital defendant Marcellus Williams on the basis of actual innocence and constitutional error at trial. At the hearing, the Prosecuting Attorney and Williams presented evidence that 1) racial discrimination had occurred during jury selection, and 2) that the State had destroyed potentially useful evidence in bad faith. The Prosecuting Attorney conceded constitutional error in both the jury selection and the handling of evidence based on evidence presented at the hearing, including testimony from the trial prosecutor admitting “part of the reason” he struck a Black juror was because of his race and that he handled the murder weapon without gloves multiple times before trial, contaminating any DNA on the weapon. The state courts denied the Prosecuting Attorney’s motion and appeal of the denial without giving any deference to the concession of constitutional error at trial. This petition presents the following questions: 1. Whether due process of law requires reversal where a capital conviction is so infected with errors that the prosecutor who prosecuted the case no longer seeks to defend it. 2. Whether, in this capital case, the Missouri courts erred in failing to recognize that a prosecutor’s testimony that he struck a juror “in part” because of his race requires reversal under Batson v. Kentucky. 1