The State of Missouri put its lethal hands on another of its longtime death penalty captives on Tuesday evening in Bonne Terre, prematurely ending his life with a poison injection of pentobarbital.

The state-sponsored killing of Marcellus Williams took place at the Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center, the same prison where the state executed Brian Dorsey in April and David Hosier in June. Williams adopted the name Khaliifah ibn Rayford Daniels after converting to Islam, and is widely known as Khaliifah.

Missouri has normalized this terrible culling of its prison population, granting itself license to kill in all four seasons. The next execution is already slated for December 3, and if the tragedy on Tuesday offers any paramount lesson, it’s that in 2024, under Gov. Mike Parson’s theory of governance, the schedule sets the pace of destruction of human life. No matter how compelling, important or warranted, requests for deviations from the schedule are unwelcome, and will be treated as hostile communiqués from potentially rebellious subjects.

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