The first Georgia execution in over four years will be Wednesday's execution of a man who killed his ex-girlfriend 30 years ago. Willie James Pye, 59, was convicted of murder and other charges for killing Alicia Lynn Yarbrough in November 1993. Jackson state prison will administer the pentobarbital lethal injection at 7 p.m.
Pye's lawyers termed the 1996 trial “a shocking relic of the past” and stated the 1990s local public defense system was bad in their clemency appeal. The local justice system failed, “turning accused defendants into convicted felons with all the efficiency of Henry Ford’s assembly line,” Pye’s lawyers said in their mercy appeal.
“Had defense counsel not abdicated his role, the jurors would have learned that Mr. Pye is intellectually disabled and has an IQ of 68,” they said, citing the state's expert. Intellectually impaired defendants cannot be executed. Experts determined Pye satisfies the qualifications, but his lawyers maintained Georgia's standard of proof was too high.
“They also would have learned the challenges he faced from birth — profound poverty, neglect, constant violence and chaos in his family home — foreclosed healthy development,” they wrote. „This is the kind of proof that supports a life sentence.”
Yarbrough was dating another man when Pye was slain, but they had been dating intermittently. Prosecutors say Pye, Chester Adams, and a 15-year-old bought a firearm before going to a neighboring party to rob that man.
The trio left the party at midnight and found Yarbrough alone with her infant at her house. According to prosecutors, they broke into the house, stole Yarbrough's ring and necklace, and forced her to come with them, leaving the baby alone.
Using a car, the group raped Yarbrough and departed the motel with her, prosecutors claimed. According to court documents, Pye ordered Yarbrough out of the car, made her lie face down, then shot her three times on a gravel road.
On Nov. 17, 1993, Yarbrough's body was located hours after her murder. Pye, Adams, and the kid were detained shortly. The adolescent admitted to Yarbrough's death, implicating Pye and Adams.
follow for more updates