Death Sentence Reinstated for Melanie Rowell's Killer

0:00It's April 6th. I'm Corey with The Story, and this is Birmingham News Today, local news powered by AI. A federal appeals court just reinstated the death sentence for Marcus Bernard Williams, the Alabama man convicted of raping and murdering A, 20-year-old single mom back in 1996. He broke into Melanie Raul's home in Sinclair County in the dead of night, made sure her two toddlers were asleep, then raped, and strangled her at. Knife point for over 15 minutes. Her kids found her body the next morning. The jury convicted him of capital murder in 1999, after hearing his confession and forensic evidence, voting 11-1 for death. But a lower federal court later tossed a sentence, saying his lawyers should have pushed the hypersexuality defense to lessen his blame. Prosecutors fired back that such a claim wouldn't have helped. In fact, it could have led in proof of another assault he did just weeks later. Justice won early appeals, but the Supreme Court sent it back, and on April 3rd, the eleventh circuit sided with the state.

1:02Now Justice feels closer for Raul's family after years of fights, thanks to the Attorney General's team pushing hard to make it stick.