The first execution in more than four years takes place in Georgia, as a man convicted of murdering his ex-girlfriend in 1993 is executed

Jackson: In the state’s first execution in more than four years, a Georgia man convicted of the murder of his ex-girlfriend thirty years ago was executed Wednesday night.

At the Jackson state jail, Willie James Pye, 59, was given an injection of the sedative pentobarbital and was later declared dead at 11:03 p.m. Because of his conviction in the kidnapping, rape, and shooting death of Alicia Lynn Yarbrough in November 1993, he was given a death sentence.
When the warden asked Pye if he had any last words, he replied that he didn’t.

He replied that he would want a prayer said for him when requested. Following a short prayer, a clergy member asked God to grant Pye some grace and kindness.
The medicines started flowing while Pye was mostly still. About half a dozen times, he started to exhale quickly, making his lips tremble and his cheeks dimple every time. He was still there there then. The warden entered the execution chamber a few minutes later and declared the hour of death.
The U.S. Supreme Court was asked to intervene by Pye’s attorneys in late appeals, but the justices unanimously declined to halt the execution. The defence team maintained their claims that Pye was not qualified for execution due to an intellectual handicap and contended that the state had not fulfilled the requirements for starting executions again after the COVID-19 epidemic. The state reply said that the allegations lacked validity and had already been resolved by the courts. Georgia carried out its final execution in January 2020, before the COVID-19 epidemic took hold.
Although Pye and Yarbrough had an intermittent love connection, Pye was living with another man when she was slain. Prosecutors claim that Pye, Chester Adams, and a 15-year-old had intended to rob the guy and purchase a firearm before going to a party in a neighbouring town.
Around midnight, the three of them left the party and headed to Yarbrough’s home, where they discovered her alone with her infant. Prosecutors said that after forcing their way into the home, they took a necklace and ring from Yarbrough and made her accompany them, leaving the infant alone.
Prosecutors said that after leaving the hotel with Yarbrough in the vehicle, the gang proceeded to another location,, where they sexually assaulted her. According to court documents, once they went onto a rural road, Pye ordered Yarbrough out of the vehicle, forced her to lay face down, and shot her three times.
On November 17, 1993, Yarbrough’s corpse was discovered, only a few hours after her death. The adolescent, Pye, and Adams were taken into custody right away. Yarbrough’s death was not disclosed to Pye or Adams, but the adolescent later confessed and named the other two.
The adolescent and the prosecution came to a plea deal, and the kid testified principally in Pye’s trial. Pye was given the death penalty after a jury in June 1996 found him guilty of murder, abduction, armed robbery, rape, and burglary.
In court documents, Pye’s attorneys said that while the teenager’s evidence was seriously considered by the prosecution, Pye subsequently made contradictory remarks. According to the attorneys’ court papers, Pye’s evidence during the trial and these admissions suggest that Yarbrough left the house voluntarily and proceeded to the hotel in order to exchange narcotics for sex.
Pye’s attorneys also said in earlier court documents that their client was brought up in abject poverty, without access to adequate food and clothes, indoor plumbing, or other necessities. His attorneys argued that his early years were marked by abuse and neglect at the hands of often-inebriated family members.
Pye’s attorneys also contended that Pye’s impulse control and capacity to plan were impaired due to a frontal lobe brain injury, which may have been brought on by foetal alcohol syndrome.
Pye’s attorneys have long maintained in court that Pye ought to get a new sentence since his trial attorney was not sufficiently prepared for that portion of the case. His defence team said that in order to provide the jury with mitigating evidence at sentence, the first trial counsel did not adequately research his “life, background, physical,, and psychiatric health.”
A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with Pye’s attorneys in April 2021, despite a federal court rejecting such allegations. The panel decision was reversed in October 2022,, when the case was reheard by the whole federal appeals court.
Adams, Pye’s co-defendant, who is now 55 years old, entered a guilty plea in April 1997 to counts of rape, armed robbery, abduction with bodily harm, and aggravated sodomy. He is still incarcerated after receiving five consecutive life sentences.
The Georgia Department of Corrections reports that since the death penalty was restored by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1976, 75 men and 1 woman have been killed in Georgia. Pye was the 54th prisoner executed by lethal injection. In Georgia, there are now 35 men and one woman serving death sentences.