Georgia Man Set for Execution Sept. 16 in 2003 Double Slaying of Real Estate Agents
Stacey Humphreys, 53, faces lethal injection after his December execution was halted over parole board conflict-of-interest claims.
Georgia schedules execution of man convicted in 2003 Powder Springs double murder
Georgia prison officials have set a September 16 execution date for Stacey Humphreys, 53, convicted of fatally shooting two real estate agents in a suburban Atlanta model home more than two decades ago, ABC News US reports.
Humphreys is scheduled to receive a lethal injection at the state prison near Jackson at 7 p.m. He would be the first person executed in Georgia this year. The state's last execution was carried out in March 2024, with the death penalty since largely stalled amid litigation over a pandemic-era agreement that defense lawyers argue temporarily shields many death row inmates.
The crimes
On November 3, 2003, Humphreys entered a sales office inside a model home in Powder Springs, a suburb roughly 20 miles northwest of Atlanta, around midday. The two women working there — Cyndi Williams, 33, and Lori Brown, 21 — were real estate agents. Evidence presented at trial showed Humphreys forced them to strip naked and hand over their bank PINs before shooting both women dead.
He took their driver's licenses, bank cards and credit cards, and later withdrew more than $3,000 from their accounts. After his arrest, Humphreys told police he had recently taken out high-interest payday loans and needed money for a truck payment. He was on parole at the time, having been released from prison just 13 months earlier following a 1993 felony theft conviction.
Witnesses reported seeing a man matching Humphreys' description at the sales office, and a vehicle in the parking lot resembling his black Dodge Durango. When officers attempted to question him at his Dunwoody home days later, he fled. Police arrested him in Wisconsin following a high-speed chase.
Investigators later found a Ruger handgun in the console of the rented Jeep Humphreys used to flee. The 9 mm weapon matched the bullets used to kill both women. Blood on the gun matched Williams' DNA; blood found in Humphreys' truck matched Brown's DNA, according to court documents. Humphreys told investigators he could not recall his actions at the time of the killings — but when asked why he ran, he said, according to court filings: "I know I did it. I know it just as well as I know my own name."
Halted once before
Humphreys had previously been scheduled to die last December, but that execution was halted after his attorneys filed a petition asking a judge to require two members of the State Board of Pardons and Paroles to recuse themselves from his clemency hearing.
His lawyers argued that both board members carried conflicts of interest rooted in their roles during his original trial. Kimberly McCoy had worked as a victim advocate with the Cobb County district attorney's office at the time of the trial and was assigned to the victims in the case. Wayne Bennett was serving as sheriff in Glynn County — where the trial was relocated due to pretrial publicity — and Humphreys' attorneys argued he oversaw security for both the jurors and Humphreys himself during proceedings.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney placed the execution on hold while he weighed the matter. In March, McBurney ruled that McCoy must step aside due to a "material conflict of interest," but found that Bennett retained very little memory of the trial and did not present a conflict.
McBurney also rejected a request to compel the governor to appoint a replacement board member so that Humphreys' clemency petition could be heard by a full five-member panel. The judge wrote that this decision rested with the governor and the board, but added they "will no doubt be guided by the finality of the death penalty and the firm tradition of (if not the right to) a five-member deliberative panel" in determining how to proceed.
Appeals still pending
Humphreys' lawyers appealed to the Georgia Supreme Court, which declined to take up the case. They then filed a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court, which remains pending.
In a statement, his legal team called for a replacement to be appointed for McCoy before any clemency hearing proceeds, and urged the parole board to delay the execution until that happens. "There should be no shortcuts when imposing the ultimate punishment," they said.
Source: ABC News US