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one Georgia judge on Monday temporarily stopped a december implement That has already was put on hold, citing concerns about the country. Leniency Procedural issues must be resolved before Stacey Humphries’ death sentence can proceed.
Humphreys, 52, was scheduled to be executed on Dec. 17, but lethal injections were suspended days ago.
He was convicted of malice murder and other charges in the 2003 shooting deaths of Cyndi Williams, 33, and Lori Brown, 21, at a Cobb County real estate office. Atlanta.
At the center of the legal dispute are claims by Humphries’ attorneys that two members of the Georgia Parole Board have conflicts of interest that could influence the pardon hearing.
Humphries’ attorneys filed a petition earlier this month asking a judge to order two members of the parole board to recuse themselves from considering his clemency application.
One of the board members, Kimberly McCoy, was a victim advocate for the Cobb County District Attorney’s Office at the time of Humphries’ trial and was assigned to work with victims in the case, attorneys said.
Another board member, Wayne BennettIt was the Greene County Sheriff who moved the trial to that county because of pretrial publicity. Humphries’ attorneys said Bennett was responsible for overseeing the safety of jurors and Humphries himself during the case.
In an order filed Monday, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney wrote, “Pressing the ‘pause’ button on the enforcement mechanism until we answer the important questions raised by the petitioners regarding the proper composition of the Clemency Hearing Board is the correct course of action.”
He ordered attorneys from both sides to submit additional legal briefs on the issue by Jan. 19.
Additionally, the judge wrote in the order that Humphries should conduct a thorough research and argument on the conflict of interest issue so that the parole board, which does not have a conflict of interest, can decide his case at a clemency hearing.