Willie James Pye, convicted of the rape and murder of his former girlfriend in 1993, was executed by lethal injection by the state of Georgia on Wednesday night.
Willie James Pye [AP Photo/Georgia Department of Corrections via AP]
Pai, 59, was given the sedative pentobarbital in an execution chamber at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Butts County, about 50 miles southeast of Atlanta. The Georgia Department of Corrections pronounced him dead at 11:03 p.m.
Pai’s execution was Georgia’s first since 2020 and came after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected his appeal late Wednesday. The Georgia Parole Board, which has the power to grant clemency to death row inmates, also rejected his 36-page clemency request on Tuesday.
“Following a conference to consider pardoning death row inmate Willie James Pye, and after a thorough review of all of the facts and circumstances of the case, the State Board of Pardons and Paroles has denied pardon,” the state board said in a brief statement.
“He accepted final prayers but did not record any final statements before he was executed,” Georgia Department of Corrections spokeswoman Lori Benoit said of Pye’s final moments, reported The Washington Post. On the day of his execution, Pye was visited by six family members, members of clergy and lawyers.
Jennifer Peebles, a reporter for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, described what she saw in the execution chamber Wednesday night:
Willie James Pye lay strapped to a gurney in the execution chamber. No one spoke in the witness room. No one moved.
… The witnesses were taken by van to a small building on the prison campus that houses the state’s execution chamber. Each group was led in a line by corrections officers up a short cement ramp, flanked on either side by two members of the prison’s tactical team in riot gear, carrying assault rifles and with their helmets’ face shields lowered.
The darkness outside shone directly into the bright light of the witness room, and as reporters stepped over the threshold, guards pulled back the curtains on the tall windows, revealing the bound figure of the condemned man in full view.
The gurney was tilted toward the witnesses, with Pai’s head elevated and his feet lower, his arms outstretched at either side and connected to intravenous lines, and most of his body covered by a sheet.
… After Warden Shawn Emmons read Pi’s death warrant, he and the pastor left the execution chamber, and a lethal dose of pentobarbital began to flow into Pi’s veins.
The execution took five, maybe ten, minutes. Witnesses were not allowed to wear watches or bring mobile phones. There was a clock on the wall that was visible to the execution chamber staff but not to those in the last row of the gallery.
When the time came, Pai glanced up at the ceiling, then closed his eyes and never opened them again. After a while, he began to snore.
His cheeks puffed with air several times as he exhaled his final breath. At one point, his head wobbled slightly, just for a second. He tilted his head to one side, then the other, a moment later.
After a moment, Pai stopped moving. The director reappeared with two men in white coats and stethoscopes. They looked over Pai and nodded slightly to each other.
In 2021, a review panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals granted relief and vacated Pai’s sentence, citing insufficient public defender representation, but after a full rehearing, the appeals court reinstated the sentence.
Willie James Pye was the 54th inmate executed by lethal injection in Georgia. The state has executed 75 men and one woman since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976.
Pai’s execution was a brutal act of state murder. Everyone in our justice system, from the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court, is well aware of the fact that Pai, who was 28 years old at the time of the murder of Alicia Lynn Yarbrough, was mentally disabled and wrongfully convicted at trial. His death sentence was the result of a conspiracy between a corrupt prosecutor and a corrupt public defender.
According to court records, Pye and two accomplices planned to rob a man with whom Yarbrough was living in 1993. Pye was upset with Yarbrough because Yarbrough had signed a birth certificate for a child that Pye claimed was his.
Pye purchased a .22 caliber handgun and three men wearing balaclavas went to the man’s home where Yarbrough and the baby were alone. Pye kicked in the door and held Yarbrough at gunpoint while the men stole her ring and necklace. They then abducted her, took her to a motel, and raped her.
According to court documents, they drove Yarbrough to a dirt road, where Pye ordered her out of the car, ordered her to lie face down, and shot her three times. Pye was convicted based on the testimony of one of his accomplices and DNA evidence taken from Yarbrough’s body.
Pye was sentenced to death, but his accomplices received life sentences for their roles in Yarbrough’s murder.
Among the reasons for pardon submitted by the Commonwealth’s Attorney Program to the Georgia Parole Board were:
Pai’s childhood circumstances – facing severe poverty, neglect, constant violence and domestic turmoil from birth – contributed to his developmental disabilities. These factors were never presented to the jury at trial. The Georgia Supreme Court ruled in 1989 that the execution of the intellectually disabled violates the state constitution. Contrary to what prosecutors told the jury, Pai never threatened the lives of prison officials. The jury that sentenced Pai to death is now asking that he not be executed. Pai has expressed remorse for the harm he caused to Alicia Lynn Yarbrough’s family.
Pai’s pardon lawyers, who appealed to the parole board, wrote that “had the defense not abdicated, the jury would have known that Mr. Pai is intellectually disabled and has an IQ of 68.” The public defender wrote that Pai grew up in poverty and was exposed to “constant violence,” and that “this is precisely the evidence that supports a sentence of life imprisonment.”
None of these facts were sufficient to prevent Pai’s execution.
At least 35 mentally ill people have been executed in the United States since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. The exact number of cognitively disabled people awaiting execution is unknown, but experts estimate there are between 200 and 300.
According to a recent analysis by the University of Pennsylvania, two-thirds of federal prisoners are disabled. The study also found that “inmates with disabilities are more than twice as likely as non-disabled inmates to have previously been placed in a treatment facility, such as a psychiatric hospital, residential treatment facility, or group home (46% vs. 20%).”
According to a study published by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, 38 percent of inmates report a disability, which represents 760,000 inmates. Nearly a quarter of those surveyed report cognitive problems, such as difficulty with memory or decision-making. A similar percentage of inmates said they were told at some point they had attention deficit disorder, and 14 percent were told they had a learning disability.
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