Northwestern students held a vigil in honor of executed death row inmate Marcellus Khaliifah Williams Thursday evening on the Deering Library steps.
Williams was convicted of first-degree murder in 1998. But throughout his sentence, he maintained he was innocent. He was never linked to the murder by DNA, including by evidence such as the fingerprints found on the scene. Williams was executed Tuesday evening in Missouri.
Weinberg junior Inaya Hussain created a poster that was later shared on social media by several other NU student groups’ accounts. In the spring, Hussain similarly organized a vigil for Nex Benedict, a 16-year-old Indigenous non-binary teenager found dead after being attacked by their classmates.
“There has been this massive injustice, this horrible death,” she said. “And again, I found it important to bring people together, process it together and have a space where we could hold that grief and anger and love, and then possibly move forward from there.”
She spoke about Williams’s life, his use of poetry to uplift others and highlight injustice and his relationship with his family.
Hussain and others repeated the phrase “Praise to Allah in every situation” — Williams’ last words.
Speakers talked about their grief and emotions following Williams’ death; recited their original poetry and Williams’, including “The Perplexing Smiles of the Children of Palestine”; said duas, or prayers; and read from the Quran.
Weinberg junior Ruth Debono said Williams’s death is a part of how the legal system is designed to work.
“It’s an example of what the system was designed to do, exactly what systems of mass incarceration were designed to continue the enslavement of Black Americans in the United States,” Debono said. “The death penalty, which allows the state just one more legal method through which to take Black life, through which to harm and criminalize people of color in this country.”
Medill senior Fatima Jalloh recited one of Williams’ poems and one they had written before the vigil, inspired by Williams’ poem.
“I feel the same as before,” Jalloh said, after the vigil. “I’m glad to have gathered in the community … this existence of pain within all of us, we saw it in the spring at the encampment. It’s a lot of the same feelings over and over again, it can get tiring to come together and grieve, but it’s all that we have.”
SESP senior and Undergraduate Prison Education Partnership co-president Sophia Chang also talked about the history of incarceration in the United States.
Chang described the situation as “inhumane” and emphasized the importance of not being desensitized to violence. She said the violence of Williams’s death and death row is part of the “fabric” of the United States.
“Innocence is not secure,” she said during the vigil. “Innocence is not clear, in many ways, it is subjective. After all, the titles of innocent and guilty are defined by the state.”
At the end of the vigil, Hussain provided resources to attendees to be more involved in criminal justice.
While she said NU is an “apolitical” campus, Hussain hopes the vigil can help people be more politically involved.
“Something that is really so tragic as the murder of an innocent man could be a great jumping off point for more people to get involved, not even in community work, but in even thinking about abolition or thinking about systemic racism,” she said.
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— NU students honor transgender, nonbinary teen Nex Benedict
