ATLANTA (AP) — Prison officials in Georgia have scheduled an execution later this month for a man convicted of fatally shooting two real estate agents in Atlanta’s suburbs two decades ago. Stacey Humphreys is scheduled to be put to death at 7 p.m. on Dec. 17, according to the Department of Corrections. Humphreys was convicted […]
U.S.
Georgia sets execution date for man convicted of killing two real estate agents in 2003
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ATLANTA (AP) — Prison officials in Georgia have scheduled an execution later this month for a man convicted of fatally shooting two real estate agents in Atlanta’s suburbs two decades ago.
Stacey Humphreys is scheduled to be put to death at 7 p.m. on Dec. 17, according to the Department of Corrections. Humphreys was convicted of malice murder in the 2003 killings of 33-year-old Cyndi Williams and 21-year-old Lori Brown.
Humphreys, 52, would be the first person executed in Georgia this year.
Humphreys’ lawyers declined to comment Wednesday on his execution date being set.
Humphreys entered a sales office in a model home for a new subdivision in Powder Springs, a suburb about 20 miles (32 kilometers) northwest of Atlanta, around midday on Nov. 3, 2003. The two women worked there as real estate agents, and evidence presented at trial showed that Humphreys forced them to strip naked and give him their bank PINs before fatally shooting them.
Humphreys took the women’s driver’s licenses and bank and credit cards, and withdrew more than $3,000 from their accounts, according to court filings. He told police after his arrest that he had recently taken out some high-interest payday loans and needed money for a payment on his truck.
Humphreys was on parole for a 1993 felony theft conviction at the time and had been released from prison 13 months earlier.
Witnesses told police they saw a man fitting Humphreys’ description at the sales office and a vehicle in the parking lot that matched his black Dodge Durango. Police zeroed in on Humphreys and tried to question him at his Dunwoody home days later. He fled and was arrested in Wisconsin after leading police on a high-speed chase.
He told investigators he didn’t remember his actions at the time of the killings, but when asked why he fled, he said, “I know I did it. I know it just as well as I know my own name,” according to court filings.
Police found a Ruger handgun that matched the 9 mm bullets used to kill the women in the console of the rented Jeep Humphreys used to flee. Blood on the gun matched Williams’ DNA, and blood in Humphreys’ truck matched Brown’s DNA, according to court documents.
Lawyers for Humphreys have argued that his death sentence was tainted by a biased juror who lied during jury selection and bullied other jurors into voting for a death sentence. As a result, they argue, Humphreys’ death sentence should be thrown out because he was denied his right to a fair trial.
During jury selection for Humphreys’ trial in September 2007, a juror said she had been the victim of armed robbery and attempted rape by an escaped convict but that she had been able to escape before he entered her home, according to court filings. But in the jury room, she told the other jurors that a man broke into her apartment and attacked her while she was naked in bed.
She had her mind made up, and when the other 11 jurors voted for life without parole on the second day of deliberations, she wouldn’t consider it, according to court filings. She screamed and vowed to stay there as long as it took to reach a death sentence, jurors told the judge they were deadlocked and a juror asked to be removed because of another juror’s “hostile” behavior, the filings say. Ultimately, the jury reached a unanimous death verdict.
The juror’s behavior surfaced through juror affidavits and testimony after the trial, and Georgia courts found that it was inadmissible evidence under a rule that generally doesn’t allow using juror testimony to impeach a verdict. Federal courts similarly found that Humphreys’ juror misconduct claim was procedurally barred.
The arguments went up to the U.S. Supreme Court, which declined in October to hear the case. Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote a dissent, joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, saying she would have sent the case back to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals “for further clarification rather than leave Humphreys’s juror-misconduct claim caught in a web of procedural barriers.”
Georgia uses the sedative pentobarbital to execute people, according to the Department of Corrections.
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This story corrects the date of the scheduled execution to Dec. 17.