March 15th 2024.
Georgia is currently planning to carry out an execution of a prisoner, which would be the first since the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the use of lethal injections. The prisoner in question is 59-year-old Willie James Pye, who was found guilty of murder and other crimes for killing his ex-girlfriend in 1993. According to The Associated Press, Pye's execution is set for March 20, making it the first one since January 2020.
In April 2021, the state attorney general's office reached an agreement with attorneys representing death row inmates to halt executions for a specific group of prisoners. This decision was made due to the ongoing pandemic. The agreement stated that executions would not resume until three conditions were met: the state's COVID-19 judicial emergency had expired, normal visitation at state prisons had resumed, and a COVID-19 vaccine was available to the public.
However, this agreement only applied to inmates on death row whose appeals had been denied by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals while the judicial emergency was in effect. It was set to continue until August 1, 2022, or one year after the conditions were met, whichever came later.
In late February of this year, Pye's attorneys filed a motion for him to join the ongoing litigation over the agreement. They argued that the conditions of visitation and a COVID-19 vaccine had not yet been fulfilled. Nathan Potek, an attorney for the Federal Defender Program, expressed shock and outrage over the fact that the state had simultaneously pursued Pye's execution while engaged in settlement discussions with his lawyers.
Despite Pye's appeal being denied by the 11th Circuit in March 2023, the state maintained that the agreement only applied to a small group of death row inmates. Since Pye was not included in that group, the state claimed that he was not exempt from execution while the litigation over the agreement was ongoing. Pye's lawyers have since filed a new lawsuit accusing the state of violating the agreement.
On March 11, another federal lawsuit was filed alleging that the state had unconstitutionally created two classes of death row prisoners: those who were protected under the agreement and those who were not. As the legal battle continues, Pye's execution remains scheduled for March 20.
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