ST. LOUIS (KTRS) Attorneys for a Missouri death row inmate convicted in the 1998 murder of a former St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter are asking for a halt to the prisoner’s execution next week.

The attorneys for Marcellus Williams filed the request with the state Supreme Court and Governor Eric Greitens’s office because they say they have DNA evidence that exonerates him. Williams is scheduled to die by injection next Tuesday for fatally stabbing former Post-Dispatch reporter Lisha Gayle during a 1998 burglary at her home in University City. The attorneys for Williams say that testing conducted in December shows DNA found on the knife does not match Williams. A spokeswoman for Attorney General Josh Hawley says the office remains confident that Williams is guilty based on other evidence in the case. A spokesman for Governor Greitens declined comment, saying only that the claim will need further review.

(Photo courtesy of St. Louis Post-Dispatch)