Georgia set to execute death row inmate Willie Pye, whose lawyers claim he has an intellectual disability

The US Supreme Court has denied the final appeals of Georgia death row inmate Willie Pye, clearing the way for the state to proceed with his execution, which would be Georgia’s first in more than four years.

The US Supreme Court has denied the final appeals of Georgia death row inmate Willie Pye, clearing the way for the state to proceed with his execution, which would be Georgia’s first in more than four years. In a clemency petition and various court filings, Pye and his attorneys had argued for his life to be spared, citing an intellectual disability, a troubled upbringing and ineffective assistance of counsel. Indeed, three of Willie Pye’s jurors are opposed to his execution, citing factors in the inmate’s background that were not presented by what his clemency petition says was an overworked and ineffective public defender. The state parole board, however, was unconvinced: After meeting Tuesday and “thoroughly considering all of the facts and circumstances of the case,” it denied clemency, according to a news release. If Pye’s execution by lethal injection proceeds as planned Wednesday evening, it would be Georgia’s first since January 2020, according to the non-profit Death Penalty Information Center. Executions were halted there as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, the American Bar Association has said. Pye, 59, was convicted of malice murder, kidnapping with bodily injury, armed robbery, burglary and rape and sentenced to death for the 1993 killing of Alicia Lynn Yarbrough, with whom he had an on-again, off-again romantic relationship, according to court records. Pye’s clemency petition argued instead for a life sentence, pointing in part to the ineffective assistance of his trial attorney, who died in 2000. At the time, that attorney “was responsible for all indigent defense services” for Spalding County, Georgia, through a contract for which he was paid a lump sum, the petition says.