ATLANTA– Georgia’s parole board has rejected clemency for a convicted man set to die Wednesday evening, paving the way for the state’s first execution in more than four years.
Lawyers for Willie James Pye had argued that he should not be executed because he is mentally disabled and feels remorse for killing a woman 30 years ago, his lawyers wrote in their clemency request.
Pye, 59, is expected to receive a lethal injection of the sedative pentobarbital. He was convicted of murder, rape and other crimes in the November 1993 killing of his ex-girlfriend, Alicia Lynn Yarbrough.
After a closed-door hearing, the Georgia Parole Board denied Pye’s pardon request, the agency announced late Tuesday.
Pye’s attorneys called the man’s trial “a shocking relic of the past” and cited racism and serious flaws in Spalding County’s public defense system from the 1990s.
The failure of the local justice system resulted in “defendants being turned into convicted criminals with all the efficiency of Henry Ford’s assembly line,” Pye’s lawyers wrote in their clemency petition.
“Had the defense not abandoned his role, jurors would have learned that Mr. Pye is intellectually disabled and has an IQ of 68,” his attorneys wrote.
“They would also have learned that the challenges he faced from birth – deep poverty, neglect, constant violence and chaos in his family home – precluded the possibility of healthy development,” they wrote. “This is exactly the kind of evidence that supports a life sentence.”
Pye had 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 planned to rob the man and bought a gun before going to a party in Griffin, prosecutors say.
The trio left the party around midnight and went to the home where Yarbrough lived, where authorities said they found her alone with her baby. They forced their way into the home, stole a ring and necklace from Yarbrough and took her with them when they left, leaving the baby alone, prosecutors say.
The three then drove to a motel where they took turns raping Yarbrough and then left the motel with her in the teen’s car, prosecutors said. After turning onto a dirt road, Pye ordered Yarbrough out of the car and made her lie face down before shooting her three times, according to court records.
A jury found Pye guilty of murder, kidnapping, armed robbery, rape and burglary in June 1996, and sentenced him to death.
The last execution in Georgia took place in January 2020. The state is trying to move past an agreement struck during the COVID-19 pandemic that effectively ended lethal injections at the time.