Georgia executions: A look at 77 people put to death since 1983

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This undated photo shows the death chamber at the Georgia Diagnostic Prison in Jackson, GA. (Photo by Georgia Department of Corrections/Getty Images)

ATLANTA - For more than four decades, Georgia has carried out executions for some of the state's most notorious murders, from cases that attracted little attention outside their communities to death sentences that became the focus of international campaigns.

Who has Georgia executed?

Since executions resumed in Georgia in 1983, the state has put 77 people to death — 76 men and one woman.

The list includes Troy Davis, whose claims of innocence generated international attention; Kelly Gissendaner, the only woman executed in Georgia's modern death penalty era; Carlton Gary, convicted in the so-called Stocking Strangler murders in Columbus; and Willie James Pye, the most recent person executed by the state.

Georgia could add another name Wednesday. Stacey Humphreys is scheduled to die by lethal injection for the 2003 murders of Cobb County real estate agents Cyndi Williams and Lori Brown.

Why did executions stop and then resume?

Georgia has a much longer history of capital punishment, but the state's current era of executions dates to a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case.

Executions in the United States were effectively halted amid legal challenges to the death penalty. In the 1972 case Furman v. Georgia, the Supreme Court struck down existing death penalty laws, finding the way capital punishment was being imposed violated the Constitution.

Georgia rewrote its death penalty law. On July 2, 1976, the Supreme Court upheld Georgia's revised system in Gregg v. Georgia, clearing the way for capital punishment to resume.

But Georgia did not immediately begin carrying out executions.

Seven years passed before the state put another person to death.

1983: Georgia resumes executions

John Eldon Smith became the first person executed in Georgia's modern death penalty era on Dec. 15, 1983.

Smith was executed in the electric chair for a Bibb County murder.

Over the next 15 years, Georgia executed another 22 people by electrocution.

1984: Ivon Ray Stanley was executed July 12, followed by Alpha Otis O'Daniel Stephens on Dec. 12.

1985: Roosevelt Green Jr. was executed Jan. 9, Van Roosevelt Solomon on Feb. 20 and John C. Young on March 20.

1986: Jerome Bowden was executed June 24.

1987: Georgia carried out five executions. Joseph Holcombe Mulligan was executed May 15, Richard Tucker Jr. on May 22, William Boyd Tucker on May 29, William "Billy" Mitchell on Sept. 2 and Timothy Wesley McCorquodale on Sept. 21.

1988: James Norbon Messer Jr. was executed July 28.

1989: Henry Willis III was executed May 18.

Georgia carried out no execution in 1990.

1991: Warren McCleskey was executed Sept. 25. His case became an important death penalty case after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected his challenge alleging racial disparities in Georgia's capital sentencing system.

There was no execution in 1992.

1993: Thomas Dean Stevens was executed June 28 and Christopher Allen Burger on Dec. 7.

1994: William Henry Hance was executed March 31.

1995: Nicholas Lee Ingram was executed April 7 and Darrell Gene Devier on May 17.

1996: Larry Grant Lonchar was executed Nov. 14, followed one day later by Ellis Wayne Felker.

Georgia carried out no executions in 1997.

1998: David Loomis Cargill was executed June 10. His execution would be Georgia's last using the electric chair.

Georgia abandons the electric chair

Georgia lawmakers approved lethal injection as an execution method in 2000.

The issue was ultimately settled in October 2001 when the Georgia Supreme Court ruled that electrocution constituted cruel and unusual punishment under the state Constitution.

By that point, Georgia had executed 23 people by electrocution since executions resumed.

Lethal injection became the method for people already on death row as well as future executions.

2001: Georgia begins lethal injections

Terry Michael Mincey became the first Georgia inmate executed by lethal injection on Oct. 25, 2001.

Three more executions quickly followed: Jose Martinez High on Nov. 6, Fred Marion Gilreath Jr. on Nov. 15 and Byron Ashley Parker on Dec. 11.

2002: Ronald Keith Spivey was executed Jan. 24, Tracy Lee Housel on March 12, Wallace Marvin Fugate III on Aug. 16 and William Howard Putman on Nov. 13.

2003: Larry Eugene Moon was executed March 25, Carl Junior Isaacs on May 6 and James Willie Brown on Nov. 4.

Isaacs had been convicted in connection with the 1973 Alday family murders in Seminole County, a mass killing that became one of Georgia's most infamous murder cases.

2004: Robert Karl Hicks was executed July 1 and Eddie Albert Crawford on July 19.

2005: Timothy Don Carr was executed Jan. 25, Stephen Anthony Mobley on March 1 and Robert Dale Conklin on July 12.

There were no executions in Georgia in 2006.

Executions accelerate again

2007: John Washington Hightower was executed June 26.

2008: William Earl Lynd was executed May 6, Curtis Osborne on June 4 and Jack Edward Alderman on Sept. 16.

2009: Robert L. Newland was executed March 10, William Mark Mize on April 29 and Mark Howard McClain on Oct. 20.

2010: Melbert Ray Ford Jr. was executed June 9 and Brandon Joseph Rhode on Sept. 27.

2011: Troy Davis execution draws worldwide attention

Georgia carried out four executions in 2011.

Emmanuel Fitzgerald Hammond was executed Jan. 25, Roy Willard Blankenship on June 23 and Andrew Grant DeYoung on July 21.

Then came Troy Anthony Davis.

Davis was executed Sept. 21, 2011, for the 1989 murder of off-duty Savannah police Officer Mark Allen MacPhail.

His case became one of the most closely watched death penalty cases in the country. Questions about witness testimony and Davis' claims of innocence prompted calls for clemency from prominent figures and organizations around the world.

Despite the appeals, Georgia carried out the execution.

There were no executions in 2012.

2013: Andrew Allen Cook was executed Feb. 21.

2014-2015: Georgia increases pace of executions

2014: Marcus Alfonso Wellons was executed June 17 and Robert Wayne Holsey on Dec. 9.

2015: Georgia executed five people.

Andrew Howard Brannan was executed Jan. 13, followed by Warren Lee Hill Jr. on Jan. 27.

Then, on Sept. 30, Georgia executed Kelly Renee Gissendaner.

Gissendaner was sentenced to death for arranging the 1997 murder of her husband, Douglas Gissendaner, in Gwinnett County. Gregory Owen, who carried out the killing, testified against her and received a life sentence.

Her case attracted international attention, including appeals for clemency.

Gissendaner remains the only woman executed in Georgia since executions resumed in 1983.

Marcus Ray Johnson was executed Nov. 19, followed by Brian Keith Terrell on Dec. 9.

2016: Georgia's busiest execution year

Georgia carried out nine executions in 2016, more than in any other year of its modern death penalty era.

Brandon Astor Jones was executed Feb. 3 and Travis Clinton Hittson on Feb. 17.

Joshua Daniel Bishop followed on March 31, Kenneth Earl Fults on April 12 and Daniel Anthony Lucas on April 27.

John Wayne Conner was executed July 15.

Gregory Paul Lawler was executed Oct. 19, Steven Frederick Spears on Nov. 16 and William Cary Sallie on Dec. 6.

Executions begin slowing

The pace dropped sharply after 2016.

2017: John "J.W." Ledford Jr. was executed May 17.

2018: Carlton Michael Gary was executed March 15, followed by Robert Earl Butts Jr. on May 4.

Gary had been convicted of murdering three women in Columbus and was linked by prosecutors to a series of attacks known as the "Stocking Stranglings."

2019: Scotty Garnell Morrow was executed May 2, Marion Wilson Jr. on June 20 and Ray Jefferson Cromartie on Nov. 13.

2020: Donnie Cleveland Lance was executed Jan. 29 for the murders of his former wife, Sabrina "Joy" Lance, and her boyfriend, Dwight "Butch" Wood Jr., in Jackson County.

Lance's execution would be Georgia's last for more than four years.

2024: Georgia resumes executions

Georgia carried out no executions in 2021, 2022 or 2023.

That changed on March 20, 2024.

Willie James Pye, 59, was executed by lethal injection for the 1993 kidnapping, rape and murder of Alicia Lynn Yarbrough.

Pye had been convicted and sentenced to death in 1996. His attorneys sought clemency and raised questions about intellectual disability, but those efforts failed.

Pye became the 77th person executed in Georgia since the death penalty was reinstated and remains the state's most recent execution.

Georgia carried out no executions in 2025 and has not executed anyone through Sept. 15, 2026.

Stacey Humphreys could become No. 78

The next person scheduled for execution is Stacey Ian Humphreys.

Humphreys was convicted in Cobb County of murdering real estate agents Cyndi Williams and Lori Brown in 2003.

The Georgia Department of Corrections has scheduled his execution for 7 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 16, at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson.

If the execution goes forward, Humphreys would become the 78th person executed in Georgia since the death penalty was reinstated and the 55th put to death by lethal injection.

His attorneys are pursuing efforts to stop the execution, while the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles is considering his request for clemency.

Unless clemency is granted or a court intervenes, Humphreys will become the newest name in a Georgia execution history that stretches back more than four decades.

Sources & Additional Reading

Georgia Department of Corrections: GDC Press Releases & Execution Records

Office of the Attorney General of Georgia: Capital Punishment Opinions & Legal Notices

Death Penalty Information Center: Georgia State Execution Database & History

Atlanta Crime and Public Safety News