Judge halts execution of convicted Cobb murderer
The planned execution of a Georgia inmate convicted of murdering two women in Cobb County has been halted by a Fulton County judge.
Stacey Ian Humphreys, found guilty of shooting real estate agents Lori Brown and Cynthia Williams in 2003, was due to be executed before Christmas.
But the state’s warrant for his execution expired while Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney considered Humphreys’ last-ditch effort to get clemency.
On Monday, McBurney gave Humphreys and his lawyers extra time to persuade him that two of the five members of the State Board of Pardons and Paroles should be replaced for Humphreys’ clemency hearing.
That hearing is the final step in a death-row inmate’s chance to avoid execution in Georgia. Each board member votes and the majority decides whether execution is warranted or clemency should be granted.
Humphreys claims two board members — Wayne Bennett and Kimberly McCoy — have conflicts of interest in his case. Bennett was the sheriff in Glynn County when Humphreys was convicted there in 2007. Humphreys was tried and convicted in Glynn County, where the case was moved after pretrial publicity made it too hard to seat a jury in Cobb.
McCoy had contact with the victims’ families in 2007 as the director of the victim witness unit in the Cobb County District Attorney’s Office.
In his order Monday, McBurney said Bennett’s disqualification from the board in considering Humphreys’ clemency petition is unnecessary, in part because the former sheriff recalled little of Humphreys’ trial, in which he had no direct involvement.
“Bennett intends to participate fully in Petitioner’s clemency hearing (and there appears to be no sound basis for requiring his recusal),” the judge wrote.
McBurney noted that McCoy planned to participate in Humphreys’ clemency hearing but abstain from voting. He said the parties need time to “wrestle with this thorny question,” because McCoy’s abstention would effectively be a vote of “no.”
“Instead, he should have five members who start the clemency process with an open mind about the outcome and an ability to vote as the evidence adduced at the hearing guides them — just as all other death-sentenced defendants have had,” the judge wrote of Humphreys. “Petitioner might still receive five no votes, but his opportunity to be heard should not be diluted.”
Nathan Potek, an attorney for Humphreys, said they’re grateful to McBurney “for pressing pause on this to give this critical life-or-death issue the consideration and time that it deserves.”
“We look forward to a final ruling and ultimately a clemency hearing before the full five-member board of unconflicted members,” Potek told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
A representative for the state and board declined to comment on the ruling.
McBurney invited the parties to file additional arguments about whether and how McCoy can be replaced by an interim board member for Humphreys’ clemency hearing.
Under the order, the board cannot move forward with Humphreys’ clemency petition for 90 days, unless McBurney issues his final decision in the case before then. And the Georgia Department of Corrections is barred from proceeding with Humphreys’ execution until the board has held his clemency hearing.
In his lawsuit, Humphreys seeks the recusal of Bennett and McCoy. He wants Gov. Brian Kemp to appoint temporary replacement board members to vote on his clemency petition.
McBurney acknowledged that the families of Humphreys’ victims have been waiting almost 20 years for “whatever closure and healing Petitioner’s execution will bring them.”
But he said one of the core principles of Georgia’s death penalty proceedings is that they should be conducted in a careful and orderly manner, given the stakes involved.
“If Petitioner is executed following a procedurally flawed clemency hearing, there is no re-do any court can order,” he wrote.
If executed, Humphreys would become the 55th Georgia inmate put to death by lethal injection. The last inmate executed by the state was Willie James Pye on March 20, 2024.
About the Author
Journalist Rosie Manins is a legal affairs reporter for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
