Clemency for Willie James Pye denied, execution scheduled for Wednesday
Willie Pye (Georgia Department of Corrections)
ATLANTA - Clemency has been denied for 59-year-old Willie James Pye, a condemned inmate facing execution.
Pye's execution has been scheduled by the Spalding County Superior Court for March 20 at 7 p.m. at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson using the sedative pentobarbital. The window for execution runs from March 20 to March 27.
The Georgia Parole Board held a meeting on Tuesday, listening to several people in Pye's defense and reviewing the circumstances of the case. They determined the criteria for clemency were not met.
In Georgia, only the Parole Board holds the authority to grant executive clemency to condemned inmates.
Georgia last carried out an execution in January 2020. In April 2021, the state attorney general’s office reached an agreement with attorneys for death row prisoners to suspend executions for a certain group of prisoners and to establish conditions under which they could resume.
Who is Willie James Pye?
Pye was convicted of murder and other crimes in the November 1993 killing of his former girlfriend, Alicia Lynn Yarbrough.
His defense team told the board that Pye has the IQ of 68 and "Had defense counsel not abdicated his role, the jurors would have learned that Mr. Pye is intellectually disabled."
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"They also would have learned the challenges he faced from birth — profound poverty, neglect, constant violence and chaos in his family home — foreclosed the possibility of healthy development," they wrote. "This is precisely the kind of evidence that supports a life sentence verdict."
Pye’s lawyers also cited severe problems in the Spalding County justice system in the 1990s and said that Pye has been a positive influence on those around him while he’s been in prison.
Who is Alicia Lynn Yarbrough?
Pye had been in an on-and-off romantic relationship with Yarbrough. At the time she was killed, Yarbrough was living with another man. Pye, Chester Adams and a 15-year-old boy had planned to rob that man and bought a handgun before heading to a party in Griffin, prosecutors have said.
The trio left the party around midnight and went to the house where Yarbrough lived, finding her alone with her baby. They forced their way into the house, stole a ring and necklace from Yarbrough and took her with them when they left, leaving the baby alone, prosecutors have said.
They drove to a motel, where they took turns raping Yarbrough and then left the motel with her in the teenager’s car, prosecutors have said. They turned onto a dirt road and Pye ordered Yarbrough out of the car, made her lie face down and shot her three times, according to court filings.
Pye's conviction
Yarbrough’s body was found a few hours after she was killed. Pye, Adams and the teenager were quickly arrested. Pye and Adams denied knowing anything about Yarbrough’s death, but the teenager confessed and implicated the other two.
The teenager reached a plea agreement with prosecutors and was the main witness at Pye’s trial. A jury in June 1996 found Pye guilty of murder, kidnapping, armed robbery, rape and burglary, and sentenced him to death.
Pye’s lawyers have argued in court filings that other statements the teen made are inconsistent with what he said at Pye’s trial. Those statements, as well as statements Pye made during trial, indicate that Yarbrough left the home willingly and went to the motel to trade sex for drugs, the lawyers said in court filings.
Pye’s lawyers also wrote in court filings that Pye was raised in extreme poverty in a home without indoor plumbing or access to sufficient food, shoes or clothing. His childhood was characterized by neglect and abuse by family members who abused alcohol, his lawyers wrote.
Argument for Pye’s clemency
His lawyers also argued that Pye suffered from brain damage, potentially caused by fetal alcohol syndrome, that harmed his ability to plan and control his impulses. They also argue that he is intellectually disabled and is therefore ineligible for execution, citing the findings of several experts who evaluated him.
Pye’s lawyers have long argued that he should be resentenced because his trial lawyer didn’t adequately prepare for the sentencing phase of his trial. A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with Pye’s lawyers in April 2021. But the full federal appeals court overturned that ruling in October 2022.
Adams, now 55, pleaded guilty in April 1997 to charges of malice murder, kidnapping with bodily injury, armed robbery, rape and aggravated sodomy. He got five consecutive life prison sentences and remains behind bars.
The Associated Press contributed to this article