Morning, y’all! Not quite as chilly today, with morning temperatures near 40 degrees and highs around 70.
Today’s newsletter has the latest on former Clayton County Sheriff Victor Hill’s release from prison, the emergence of a new “Frankenbill” at the state Capitol, and Liam Neeson coming to town with a different set of skills than you might expect. The Braves also named an opening day starter.
But first: A look at Georgia’s first scheduled execution since before the pandemic.
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CLEMENCY DENIED
Barring a last-minute change of course, the state of Georgia will kill Willie James Pye tonight. Over the protests of defense attorneys and activists, he’ll become the first person executed by the state in more than four years.
Here’s what we know.
The conviction: A jury convicted Pye of raping and killing Alicia Lynn Yarbrough, a romantic acquaintance, in November 1993 in Spalding County. Pye, now 56, unsuccessfully appealed his death sentence multiple times. In October, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear his case.
The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles denied Pye’s plea for clemency Tuesday after an hours-long closed-door meeting.
The pushback: Three of the jurors who convicted Pye joined the attempt to spare his life, raising questions about his court-appointed lawyer. Defense attorneys now representing Pye went even further, calling the lawyer a “racist, overworked public defender” who “shrugged off any meaningful investment in the case.”
They also say Pye is intellectually disabled.
The bigger picture: We won’t get too deep into the resulting legal battle, but Georgia paused executions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Pye would be the first put to death since January 2020.
Other states like Alabama have struggled to find lethal injection drugs in recent years, resorting to alternate methods of execution like nitrogen gas. But Georgia law makes the state’s supplier of pentobarbital a secret.
- Georgia prosecutors, meanwhile, aren’t pursuing the…
Read the full article here
