A Georgia man convicted of killing his former girlfriend three decades ago was scheduled to be put to death Wednesday evening in what would be the state’s first execution in more than four years.
Willie James Pye, 59, was convicted of murder and other crimes in the November 1993 shooting death of Alicia Lynn Yarbrough. The planned lethal injection using the sedative pentobarbital was set at the state prison in Jackson. Pye was scheduled to be the first person executed in Georgia since January 2020, barring an 11th-hour court intervention.
Pye’s lawyers filed late appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court, urging it to intervene. The attorneys argued the state hadn’t met the necessary conditions for resuming executions after the COVID-19 pandemic and reiterated arguments that Pye was intellectually disabled and thus ineligible for execution. State responses to the justices Wednesday night argued that the defense claims were without merit, having been settled previously by the courts.
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