Judge declines to halt execution of Georgia man seeking protection under pandemic agreement

ATLANTA — A federal judge declined Wednesday to halt next week's scheduled execution of a Georgia man who argued that he should be shielded by an agreement reached during the COVID-19 pandemic that set conditions for the state to resume putting condemned people to death.

Stacey Humphreys, 52, is scheduled to die Dec. 17 for the 2003 killings of 33-year-old Cyndi Williams and 21-year-old Lori Brown, who were fatally shot at the real estate office where they worked in an Atlanta suburb.

U.S. District Court Judge Leigh Martin May heard arguments in Atlanta and ruled that Humphreys failed to show that his rights to due process and equal protection would be violated by putting him to death now.

Nathan Potek, an attorney for Humphreys, had argued that those constitutional rights would be violated because a deal made when executions were paused during the pandemic is still being used to delay some executions, but not for Humphreys and others.

''Even though Mr. Humphreys is on death row right now, he retains that fundamental right to life,'' Potek said.

Pandemic agreement keeps some executions on hold

After Georgia put executions on hold during the pandemic, the state attorney general's office entered into an agreement with lawyers for people on death row to set the terms under which they could resume. The state Supreme Court has affirmed that the agreement is a binding contract.

The judicial emergency was lifted in June 2021 and the appeals court rejected Humphreys' request in October 2024. Lawyers for the state argue that Humphreys is, therefore, not covered by the agreement and his execution should be allowed to proceed.

''Ultimately, we haven't infringed on any constitutional process that they are entitled to,'' said Sabrina Graham, an assistant Georgia attorney general.

Under the agreement, three conditions must be met before executions could be scheduled for the covered prisoners: the expiration of the state's COVID-19 judicial emergency, the resumption of normal visitation at state prisons and the availability of a COVID-19 vaccine ''to all members of the public.''

Although the judicial emergency was lifted more than four years ago, defense attorneys say the other two conditions have not been met because visitation is ''severely restricted'' compared with pre-pandemic levels and infants under 6 months old are not eligible for the vaccine.

A judge ruled earlier this year that the vaccine condition hasn't yet been met, and the state's appeal of that ruling is pending before the Georgia Supreme Court. The judge plans to handle the visitation issue separately.

Humphreys' lawyers wrote in a lawsuit filed in October that the agreement's clear purpose was to allow lawyers for people on death row to adequately prepare for clemency proceedings and for the ''frantic time period immediately leading up to execution proceedings.''

They argue that seeking to execute people who weren't included while the agreement remains in effect creates ''a distinct, disfavored class'' of death row prisoners who won't be guaranteed he same level of legal representation.

Lawyers for the state said Humphreys has failed to show how his lawyers have been restricted from preparing for his upcoming execution because of COVID-19 or that the state has arbitrarily chosen to exclude him from the agreement.

The state's lawyers also pointed out that death row prisoner Willie James Pye made similar arguments before his execution in March 2024 and a federal judge found that ''the State clearly has a valid basis for drawing a line between the inmates covered and not covered by the Agreement.'' A similar case brought by three other people on Georgia's death row was rejected by a federal judge and is pending before the 11th Circuit.

The judge noted that Humphreys had due process in the legal system and, now that he has been convicted and his appeals are exhausted, the state has the authority to execute him. There is ''considerable variability'' on how long it takes for an execution to be carried out, and that has never been found to cause equal protection concerns, she wrote. Humphreys failed to show that he should be protected by the agreement because he was ''expressly excluded from its terms,'' she found.

Humphreys, who has multiple health issues, also asked the state to modify its execution protocol to allow him to stand or sit fully upright during the lethal injection process because he is likely to struggle to breathe if lying on his back.

In a newly filed federal complaint, his lawyers said that if the changes are not made ''he will be subjected to a torturous and grotesque spectacle.''

''Mr. Humphreys will very likely struggle to breathe while in this supine position, with a constant feeling of choking and fear that a person being strangled would experience,'' wrote Dr. Paul Zolty, who evaluated Humphreys' health.

Graham told Judge May that she's been in touch with corrections officials about the issue. The judge and the lawyers said they will await more information on how the state plans to proceed regarding the chair position. If necessary, the judge will schedule a hearing Friday on that issue, she said.

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