Georgia Department of Corrections/Reuters
Willie James Pye, who is awaiting execution at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classified Prison, poses for an unspecified Georgia Department of Corrections photo.
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Georgia is scheduled to carry out its first execution in more than four years on Wednesday, but lawyers for the death row inmate argue that he should be spared the death penalty because of his intellectual disability and troubled upbringing. That evidence was not heard by the jury at trial.
In fact, three of Willie Pye's jurors are now voting against him, citing factors in the inmate's background not listed in his clemency petition, including that he was an overworked and incompetent public defender. I am against the death penalty. But the state parole board wasn't convinced, refusing to grant clemency after “thoroughly reviewing all the facts and circumstances of the case” at a Tuesday meeting, according to a news release.
Records show Pai still has a pending lawsuit that could halt his execution. It is not uncommon for death row inmates to continue their efforts to avoid execution until just before their death row, and in some cases cases have even gone all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
If Pi is execution by injection If Wednesday night's execution goes ahead as scheduled, it will be Georgia's first execution since January 2020, according to the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center. The American Bar Association announced that executions there have been halted due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Pai, 59, was convicted of malice murder, kidnapping with bodily injury, armed robbery, burglary and rape in the 1993 murder of Alicia Lynn Yarbrough, with whom he had an on-again, off-again relationship. He was sentenced to death. In the court record.
Pai's clemency petition instead argued for a life sentence, pointing in part to the ineffective support of his trial lawyer, who died in 2000. At the time, the attorney was “in charge of all indigent defense work” in Spalding County, Georgia. His petition says he was paid a lump sum for the contract.
With the cooperation of only one lawyer and investigator, In addition to his private practice, Mr. Pai's attorneys were working on hundreds of felony cases at the same time, the petition states. While representing Pai, the attorney also represented defendants in four other death penalty cases. As a result, the lawyer “effectively abandoned his profession.”
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A Georgia Department of Corrections officer walks through the entrance to the Georgia Diagnostic and Classified Prison in Jackson in 2011.
Had he properly represented Mr. Pai, jurors “would have known that Mr. Pai is mentally retarded and has an IQ of 68, well below the average score of 100.” says the petition. “They would also have learned that the challenges he faced from the time he was born: extreme poverty, neglect, constant violence, and chaos in his family home hindered his chances of healthy growth. ” says the petition.
In 1989, the Georgia Supreme Court ruled that executing people with intellectual disabilities violates the state constitution. This decision was echoed years later by the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled in 2002 that such executions violated the Eighth Amendment's protections against cruel and unusual punishment.
Still, Georgia requires defendants who claim they have an intellectual disability to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt, setting the burden of proof to an “impossibly high standard.” Pai's petition states that it is the only state in the state to do so.
His conviction and sentence were upheld on appeal in state and federal court, but a three-judge panel of the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the sentence in 2021. It found that the work of trial lawyers during the sentencing phase of Pai's trial was inadequate and prejudicial. However, that ruling was overturned a year later after a hearing by the entire Eleventh Circuit.
Similarly, a state court previously reviewed Mr. Pai's claim of intellectual disability, but in a 2012 decision found that Mr. Pai had not proven it beyond the required reasonable doubt. . On Wednesday, the court rejected a similar appeal by Pai, citing a 2012 order and ruling that the claims were continuous, meaning they had already been decided.
Pi, along with his two accomplices, The appellate court's ruling said Yarbrough intended to rob the man he was living with. Pi was angry with Yarbrough because the man had signed the birth certificate of a child that Pi claimed was his. Pai bought a .22-caliber handgun and the three of them, wearing ski masks, went to the man's home, leaving Yarbrough alone with the baby.
According to the court ruling, Pai kicked in the door and pointed a gun at Yarbrough. The men took Yarbrough's ring and necklace, then abducted her and took her to a motel, where they raped her. They then took Yarbrough to a dirt road, where Pai removed her from her car, told her to lie on her stomach and shot her three times, according to the court ruling. One of Pai's accomplices later confessed and testified for the state, and DNA analysis of semen taken from the victim's body matched Pai.
Pai's jury recommended the death penalty, but the court ultimately sentenced him to three life sentences plus three. According to the Georgia Attorney General's Office, it will take another 20 years.
Pai's accomplices are both serving life sentences for their roles in Yarbrough's murder, according to Georgia correctional records.
