Later Wednesday night, Georgia put on death row inmate Willie James Pye for killing his ex-girlfriend brutally in 1993.
According to a statement from the Virginia Department of Corrections, the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson, which is about 50 miles southeast of Atlanta, fatally injected the 59-year-old Pye at 11:03 p.m. EDT.
The department said Pye accepted a final prayer but did not record a final remark.
According to Pye, his last meal should include two chicken sandwiches, two cheeseburgers, french fries, two bags of plain potato chips, and two lemon-lime beers.
The U.S. Supreme Court denied Pye’s last-minute request for a stay of execution late Wednesday night.
As well, the Georgia Parole Board turned down Pye’s lawyers’ requests for mercy on the grounds that he was intellectually disabled.
“Following a meeting to consider clemency for condemned inmate Willie James Pye, and after thoroughly considering all of the facts and circumstances of the case, the State Board of Pardons and Paroles has denied clemency,” the board said in a report.
According to the 1996 verdict, Pye was guilty of murder with intent, kidnapping, armed robbery, and other crimes related to the death of Alicia Lynn Yarbrough.
The state said that Pye’s connection with Yarbrough was sporadic, and at the time of her death, she was living with Charles Puckett.
While Pye and two other suspects were planning to rob Puckett, who had some money, they found that only Yarbrough was home.
Pye grabbed Yarbrough and carried her to a motel room, where three men raped her over and over again.
Soon after, Pye took her on a dirt road until they came to a stop. I instructed Yarbrough to get out of the car and lie down on the ground, face down. The prosecutor says Pye then shot her three times.
Pye’s mercy petition stated that his IQ score of 68 warranted his execution.
Because Pye grew up in extreme poverty with a mother who “drank alcohol,” his lawyers said he was likely to have many “cognitive and developmental problems.”
On behalf of Pye’s fans, his trial lawyer, Johnny Mostiler, was blamed for not doing a good job and not showing proof of Pye’s mental health problems and physical and emotional abuse during the court case.
The first execution in the state since 2020 happened.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court brought back the death sentence in 1976, Georgia has put 75 men and one woman to death, including Pye. Moreover, Pye became the 54th prisoner to succumb to a fatal injection.
In Georgia, 36 men and 1 woman are facing the death penalty.
