The Georgia Department of Corrections has scheduled the execution of Stacey Humphreys, 53, for September 16 at 7 p.m. at a state prison near Jackson. Humphreys was convicted of malice murder for the 2003 killings of real estate agents Cyndi Williams, 33, and Lori Brown, 21, in Atlanta’s suburbs. If carried out, this will be the first execution in Georgia since March 2024, as the state’s death penalty process has been largely stalled by litigation over a coronavirus-related agreement that defense lawyers argue temporarily shields many death row inmates from execution.

Humphreys’ execution was previously postponed in December after his lawyers filed a petition requesting that two members of the State Board of Pardons and Paroles recuse themselves from his clemency hearing due to alleged conflicts of interest. Kimberly McCoy, one of the board members, had served as a victim advocate for the Cobb County district attorney’s office during Humphreys’ trial, while Wayne Bennett, the other member, was the sheriff in Glynn County where the trial was relocated because of pretrial publicity. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney ruled that McCoy must recuse herself due to a “material conflict of interest,” but found that Bennett did not have a conflict. Humphreys’ lawyers subsequently appealed to the Georgia Supreme Court and filed a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court, both of which remain unresolved. They continue to urge the parole board to delay the execution until a replacement for McCoy is appointed for the clemency hearing, emphasizing that “there should be no shortcuts when imposing the ultimate punishment.” ¹

Footnotes

1. Source: Execution date set for man convicted of killing 2 real estate agents near Atlanta in 2003 (Yahoo News, AP, 2024). ↩

This is a summary. Read the original at yahoo.com.