Marcel Wayne Williams was born on August 20, 1970, in North Little Rock, Arkansas. He grew up in a deeply troubled home with three siblings, never knowing his biological father. His mother and stepfather subjected him to physical and psychological abuse, creating a chaotic and violent upbringing.

By his teenage years, Williams had already been involved in thefts and was sent to the Pine Bluff Training School, a juvenile correctional facility. At age 15, he was sentenced to 20 years in adult prison for aggravated robbery and burglary. During his incarceration, he was gang-raped, an ordeal that left lifelong psychological scars.

After serving nine years, Williams was paroled in April 1994. But instead of starting anew, he fell back into crime. While free, he kidnapped and raped two women before escalating to murder later that same year.

On the morning of November 20, 1994, 22-year-old nurse technician Stacy Rae Errickson, a mother of two, stopped at a gas station in Jacksonville, Arkansas on her way to work. At around 6:45 a.m., Williams confronted her with a gun and forced her into her car.

Errickson was then driven to multiple ATMs where she was compelled to make 18 withdrawals totaling $350. Witnesses at the gas station later identified Williams as the abductor.

After the withdrawals, Williams drove Errickson to a remote area near the Arkansas River. There, he raped her, strangled her to death, and buried her body in a shallow grave.

Williams was arrested on November 29, 1994, for unrelated rape cases. During questioning, he confessed to the kidnapping but denied killing Errickson. Despite his claims, police recovered her body on December 5, 1994, and forensic evidence linked him directly to the rape and murder.

Williams was formally charged with capital murder, rape, aggravated robbery, and kidnapping in April 1995. His trial began in January 1997, and on January 14, 1997, he was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of Stacy Errickson. In addition, he received three life sentences plus 70 years for the separate kidnappings and rapes of two other women.

He appealed his conviction, but the Arkansas Supreme Court upheld the verdict in 1999. Over the next decade, he filed multiple appeals arguing ineffective counsel and citing mitigating evidence such as his abusive childhood and traumatic prison experiences.

In 2007, a federal judge temporarily overturned his death sentence, finding that his trial lawyers had failed to present adequate mitigating evidence. However, in 2009, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the ruling, reinstating his death sentence.

Williams also became a plaintiff in lawsuits challenging Arkansas’s lethal injection protocol, delaying his execution further.

Williams’s legal team sought clemency, arguing his traumatic background and newfound religious faith justified sparing his life. He expressed remorse during his 2017 clemency hearing, saying he wanted forgiveness and to use his life to positively influence others. One of his surviving rape victims even testified in favor of mercy.

However, the family of Stacy Errickson opposed clemency, insisting justice required his execution. On March 30, 2017, the Arkansas Parole Board voted 5–2 against clemency.

Amid controversy surrounding Arkansas’s plan to execute eight prisoners in 11 days before its supply of lethal injection drugs expired, Williams was scheduled for April 24, 2017, alongside serial killer Jack Harold Jones.

At 10:33 p.m., after receiving a cocktail of lethal injection drugs, Williams was pronounced dead at the Cummins Unit. Witnesses reported he arched his back and breathed heavily before succumbing.