Georgia parole board suspends death row inmate’s execution after last-minute clemency application
A Georgia death‑row inmate who was set to die this week has been granted a temporary stay after the state announced it was reviewing a fresh clemency petition.
Local activist group Georgians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty filed the request at the last minute, gathering more than 1,400 signatures to argue that serious “profound irregularities that occurred inside the jury room” marred the original trial.
According to the petition, the jury was originally stuck at 11‑1 for life with no parole and only swayed by a single member who insisted on a death penalty. The petition also claims that this juror lied about her background during selection and used that narrative to push the rest toward a lethal verdict.
Georgia law mandates that, if a jury deadlocks, it must notify the judge and declare a mistrial. The nonprofit insists that in such situations the statute would dictate a mandatory life sentence, yet the court apparently forced the jury to continue deliberating until the death sentence was imposed.
“The Board has the unique authority to correct what the courts could not: a death sentence that emerged only after a coerced breakdown of deliberations, not through a lawful or unanimous jury decision,” the petition reads.
The petition further urges the board to weigh the extensive mitigating evidence presented during trial: Mr. Humphrey’s lifelong trauma, his ongoing expressions of remorse, and the fact that the jury’s decision was never legitimately reached.
They claim that clemency would not be an act of leniency but an act of justice, restoring the jury’s original intention and averting the execution of a man whose verdict was never properly justified.
In court records, Humphrey was sentenced to death in 2007 for the 2003 murders of Cynthia Williams, 33, and Lori Brown, 21. The murders took place at a real‑estate office, where he forced the women to strip, stole their bank card PINs, and then shot them in the back of the head.
When first caught, he first denied remembering the killings, then promptly admitted to doing them once questioned about his run‑away. “I know it just as well as I know my own name,” he said, per an official statement from the Office of the Attorney General.
Prior to last week, a federal judge refused to halt the execution, and the Supreme Court also denied the appeal.
On a lighter note, Humphrey requested a massive final meal, a Southern‑style spread that quickly went viral on social media. The request included barbecue beef brisket, pork ribs, a bacon double cheeseburger, French fries, coleslaw, cornbread, buffalo wings, a meat‑lover’s pizza, and vanilla ice cream, all accompanied by two lemon‑lime sodas. It is still unclear whether that request would be fulfilled if clemency is denied.
The court’s original ruling allowed the death to proceed any time from Wednesday through December 24.
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