Entries tagged with “Willie Pye”
Jun 09, 2025
Georgia Superior Court Judge Upholds 2021 COVID-Era Agreement Barring Executions for Nine Prisoners
On May 29, 2025, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Shukura Ingram ruled that Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr must abide by a 2021 agreement reached with attorneys for nine individuals currently on Georgia’s death row that bars their executions until COVID-19 vaccines are available to everyone. In 2021, the state agreed to halt executions until vaccines were available to all members of the public. In her ruling, Judge Ingram noted that the vaccine is not approved for children under six…
Apr 03, 2025
Georgia Senate Passes Bill Lowering Legal Standard for Intellectual Disability for Capital Defendants; Sends Bill to Governor’s Desk
Update: On May 13, 2025, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp signed HB 123 into law, which goes into effect immediately. On March 31, 2025, the Georgia Senate, in a 53 – 1 vote, passed HB 123, sending the bill to Governor Brian Kemp’s desk to be signed. HB 123 provides pretrial hearings for capital defendants to raise intellectual disability claims and would lower the standard of proof for those claims from “beyond a reasonable doubt” to a “preponderance of evidence,” in line with the other 26 states…
Mar 10, 2025
Georgia House of Representatives Unanimously Passes Bill to Ease Threshold to Prove Intellectual Disability Ahead of Capital Trials
On March 4, 2025, the Georgia House of Representatives, in a 172 – 0 vote, unanimously passed HB 123, which would provide pretrial hearings for capital defendants to raise intellectual disability claims and would lower the standard of proof for those claims from “beyond a reasonable doubt” to a “preponderance of evidence,” in line with other the other 26 states that still retain the death penalty. The bill was originally introduced by Republican Representative Bill Werkheiser during Georgia’s…
Feb 12, 2025
Georgia House Considers Bill to Provide Pretrial Hearings to Identify Capital Defendants with Intellectual Disability
For the third consecutive session, the Georgia House of Representatives is reviewing a bill seeking to provide better protections to capital defendants with intellectual disabilities. Currently, the state requires a defendant to prove “beyond a reasonable doubt” that they have an intellectual disability – the only death penalty state to have this unusually high standard. Introduced by a bipartisan group of legislators on January 27, 2025, HB 123 would lower the standard of proof required to a…
Upcoming Executions
,Botched Executions
,Nov 22, 2024
New Resource: In Era of Secrecy, States Increasingly Restrict Media Access to Executions
On December 18, Joseph Corcoran is scheduled to be the first person executed by Indiana officials in 15 years. For the first time, the state will use a single drug, pentobarbital, which comes from an unknown source and has been known to cause prisoners “excruciating” pain during executions. But no media witnesses will be present to relay what happens to the public. Indiana is an outlier in its policy decision to completely exclude the press from witnessing executions in the state. But a survey…
Issues
Apr 03, 2024
Worldwide Wednesday International Roundup: Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of the Congo, India, Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and United States
Georgia’s execution of Willie Pye – the state’s first in more than four years – garnered criticism from the European Union. “Although the European Union and its 27 Member States oppose capital punishment in all circumstances, we are especially concerned about the scheduled execution of Mr. Pye given his intellectual disability and issues regarding the quality of his legal representation,” said the EU’s letter to the state’s Board of Pardons and Parole in support of Mr. Pye’s clemency petition…
Issues
Upcoming Executions
,Mar 20, 2024
Georgia Board of Pardons and Parole Denies Clemency for Willie Pye, Scheduled for March 20 Execution, Amid Pending Secrecy and Equal Protection Lawsuits
On March 19, 2024, the Georgia Board of Pardons and Parole denied clemency for Willie Pye (pictured), who is scheduled to be executed on March 20, despite arguments that he has an intellectual disability and is therefore ineligible for execution, per Georgia state law and U.S. Supreme Court precedent. Convicted in 1996 for the 1993 murder of his ex-girlfriend, Alicia Yarbrough, Mr. Pye has spent the last 28 years on Georgia’s death row. Mr. Pye’s case has also generated public concern due to…
Issues
Upcoming Executions
,Mar 07, 2024
Georgia Sets March 20 Execution Date for Willie Pye Despite Strong Evidence of Intellectual Disability and Previous Finding of Ineffective Representation by Attorney with History of Racial Bias
The Georgia Attorney General has announced that Willie James Pye, who previously had his death sentence reversed due to his attorney’s failure to investigate his background, only to see the death sentence reinstated on appeal, is set to be executed on March 20. Mr. Pye’s court-appointed trial attorney, Johnny Mostiler, has been accused of ineffective representation or racial bias in at least four cases involving Black defendants and reportedly called one of his own clients a “little n****r.”
Issues
May 10, 2021
Federal Court Reverses Death Sentence Imposed on Defendant Represented By Georgia Lawyer With History of Ineffectiveness and Racial Bias
A federal appeals court has reversed the death sentence of an African-American Georgia death-row prisoner who was represented at trial by a defense lawyer notorious for his history of substandard representation and racial bias in death-penalty cases. On April 27, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit reversed the ruling of a federal district court and overturned the death sentence imposed on Willie James Pye (pictured). In a unanimous but unpublished opinion, the appeals court…
Issues
Native Americans
,May 03, 2021
Capital Case Roundup — Death Penalty Court Decisions the Week of April 26, 2021
NEWS (4/29/21) — Oklahoma: The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals has vacated the convictions and death sentences of two more death-row prisoners who, the court found, had committed their offenses against Native Americans on tribal lands. Applying the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark tribal sovereignty ruling in McGirt v. Oklahoma, the court found that the murders for which Benjamin Robert Cole Sr. and James Chandler Ryder had been convicted occurred in “Indian country” within the historical…
Issues
Apr 28, 2021
Supreme Court Declines to Review Death Penalty Case in Which Georgia Defendant was Forced to Reenact the Murder While in Shackles
The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to review a Georgia death-penalty case in which the prosecution was permitted to make a visibly shackled defendant reenact the murder in front of the jury, while his defense counsel raised no objection. In a decision issued on April 19, 2021, the Court denied the petition for writ of certiorari filed by lawyers for Georgia death-row prisoner Frederick Whatley (pictured). Justice Sonia Sotomayor dissented, writing that “counsel’s unreasonable failure to…