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Georgia executes Willie J. Pye for 1993 murder, despite call for clemency

Pye, whose lawyers argued had an intellectual disability, died by lethal injection in Georgia's first execution since 2020. It went ahead despite last-minute legal challenges.

By Andrew Jeong | 2024-03-21

Cathy Harmon-Christian, the executive director of Georgians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, holds an image of Willie J. Pye outside Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson, Ga., on Wednesday. Pye was executed that night. (Reuters)

Willie James Pye, a Georgia man convicted and sentenced to die for the 1993 abduction, rape and murder of his former girlfriend, was executed Wednesday night at a prison in Jackson, the Georgia Department of Corrections said in a statement.

Pye's execution was carried out by lethal injection at 11:03 p.m. and is the first in the state since 2020. It took place despite a flurry of last-minute legal challenges and a clemency request to spare his life. Pye's lawyers cited their client's intellectual disability as a reason the state should reconsider execution. They also said Pye had been poorly represented in the initial trials that resulted in a death sentence.

The U.S. Supreme Court denied a request to stay the execution late Wednesday, and the Georgia parole board, which has the authority to grant clemency in a death penalty case in the state, denied a clemency request on Tuesday.

Pye, 59, accepted a final prayer but did not record a final statement before he was put to death, said Lori Benoit, a spokeswoman for the Georgia Department of Corrections. He was visited by six family members, a clergy member and an attorney on the day of his execution.

Georgia uses the sedative pentobarbital in lethal injections, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

Nathan Potek, one of Pye's lawyers, said in an emailed statement that Pye's initial attorney, the late Johnny B. Mostiler, was "racist and incompetent." Georgia also insisted on executing Pye despite his "lifelong intellectual disability and the fact that he presents a danger to no one in prison," Potek wrote.

Pye had been assessed to have an IQ of 70, court documents show.

Mostiler, who handled 900 cases a year as the only public defender in Spalding County, Ga., died in 2000 of a heart attack at the age of 53, according to an obituary that described him as a "gruff-talking, chain-smoking" lawyer who was "turning over one case every 100 minutes, less time than a private attorney might devote to a simple traffic violation."

Pye had been in a "sporadic romantic relationship" with Alicia Lynn Yarbrough before her murder, according to court documents. On the night of Nov. 16, 1993, Pye and two accomplices -- Chester Adams and Anthony Freeman -- plotted to rob Yarbrough, who at the time was living with another man and her newborn, whom Pye thought was his child.

Wearing ski masks, they kicked open the door of Yarbrough's home after noticing that only Yarbrough and her baby were there. They then held her at gunpoint. "After determining that there was no money in the house, they took a ring and a necklace from Ms. Yarbrough and abducted her, leaving the infant in the house," according to court documents.

They next took her to a motel and raped her. After attempting to remove their fingerprints from the scene, they drove her to the side of a road, where Pye ordered her to lie face down and shot her three times. Pye and his accomplices drove away, tossing their masks and gun from the car during the drive.

Pye claimed during court hearings that Yarbrough voluntarily came to the motel room that evening to trade sex for cocaine. Judges dismissed those claims, saying Pye's assertion was unreliable partly due to its reliance on inconsistent witness testimonies.

Georgia paused executions after January 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic. The state has 35 men and one woman on death row, according to its corrections department.


This article was downloaded by calibre from https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2024/03/21/willie-pye-georgia-execution-pentobarbital-lethal-injection/


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