A pair of death row inmates sitting in prisons 600 miles apart are slated for execution on the same day later this month.
Travis James Mullis
Travis James Mullis was 24 years old when he stomped on his 3-month-old son Alijah's head and choked him to death in January 2008 in Galveston County, Texas, according to prison records.
The now-37-year-old was condemned to death in 2011, and after spending 13 years awaiting capital punishment, Mullis is scheduled to die by lethal injection on Sept. 24.
What did he do?
In 2008, Mullis was driving in the car when his infant in the backseat started to cry, he explained to the Houston Chronicle. He then attempted to sexually assault his son, crush his skull, choke him, and dump his body on the roadside.
Mullis fled for Pennsylvania. He turned himself in four days after Alijah's body was found.
During his trial, the defense argued Mullis lived a difficult life, was a victim of sexual abuse as a boy, and struggled with mental health issues.
His attorneys initially appealed his death sentence, but Mullis later on admitted he was "100 percent guilty" of killing his son and confessed he no longer wanted to fight his fate.
"I support my death sentence and want it carried out ASAP," he said in a 2017 letter penned to the Chronicle. "I was sentenced to death not indefinite detention."
Marcellus "Khaliifah" Williams
Marcellus "Khallifah" Williams was sent to death row for the 1998 stabbing murder of 42-year-old white newspaper reporter, Felicia Gayle, in her St. Louis, Missouri, home.
Williams, now 55, has spent nearly 24 years on death row, despite maintaining his innocence in her slaying.
What did he do?
At the time of her death, Gayle was working as a social worker and was discovered murdered in the suburban St. Louis residence she shared with her husband.
According to court documents, she was stabbed 43 times with a kitchen knife from their home.
Regardless of recent arguments from St. Louis Prosecutor Wesley Bell, supporting Williams' innocence, citing concerns over DNA evidence and unreliable testimony, the inmate is still scheduled to die in less than two weeks.
"Every claim of error Williams has asserted on direct appeal, post-conviction review, and habeas review has been rejected by Missouri's courts," St. Louis County Circuit Judge Bruce Hilton wrote in his decision to uphold the death penalty, according to CBS News. "There is no basis for a court to find that Williams is innocent, and no court has made such a finding. Williams is guilty of first-degree murder, and has been sentenced to death."
Bell told CNN in a statement he was "immensely disappointed" by Hilton's decision because there are "detailed and well-documented concerns regarding the integrity" of Williams' conviction.
"I, along with others who believe that the evidence in this case does not warrant execution, will continue to work to prevent that outcome," he wrote.
The state of Missouri executes inmates via lethal injection or lethal gas.
