The Missouri Supreme Court has scheduled an August 22 execution date for convicted killer Marcellus Williams.

Convicted killer Marcellus Williams (2014 photo courtesy of the Missouri Department of Corrections}

Williams, 48, was convicted of first degree murder for the gruesome August 1998 killing of former “St. Louis Post-Dispatch” reporter Felicia “Lisha” Gayle.

Prosecutors say Williams was looking for a house to break into on August 11, 1998, when he broke into Gayle’s home in St. Louis County’s University City. Prosecutors say he waited for her to leave the shower. Gayle was stabbed 43 times.

Williams reportedly stole the victim’s purse and her husband’s laptop. Police later reportedly found a “Post-Dispatch” ruler and a calculator that belonged to Gayle in Williams’ vehicle.

There were also allegations that another woman who had found the purse earlier demanded an explanation from Williams, who allegedly grabbed the woman by the throat and threatened to kill her, her children and her mother if she ever told anyone.

Missourinet checked with Missouri Department of Corrections spokesman David Owen on Wednesday. Owen says 24 Missouri prisoners, including Williams, are currently under a death sentence.

Missouri’s last execution took place on January 31 in Bonne Terre, when convicted triple killer Mark Christeson was put to death by lethal injection.

Williams was also convicted of four counts of armed criminal action, robbery and burglary. He’s incarcerated at the maximum-security Potosi Correctional Center in Mineral Point.

Williams is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection at Missouri’s Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center in Bonne Terre on August 22 at 6 p.m.

His attorneys could ask Missouri Governor Eric Greitens (R) for clemency, and they could ask the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene.

The “St. Louis Post-Dispatch” reported Wednesday that Lisha Gayle was a reporter there from 1981-1992, and that she left the newspaper to do volunteer social work with children and the poor.