A Georgia man convicted of the killing of his former girlfriend three decades ago was put to death Wednesday evening in the state’s first execution in more than four years. Willie James Pye, 59, received an injection of the sedative pentobarbital and was pronounced dead at 11:03 p.m. at the state prison in Jackson. He was sentenced to die for his conviction in the November 1993 abduction, rape and shooting death of Alicia Lynn Yarbrough.
Pye was mostly still as the drugs began to flow. He began exhaling rapid bursts of air about a half-dozen times, causing his cheeks to expand and his lips to quiver each time. Then, he was still. Several minutes later, the warden walked into the death chamber and announced the time of death. Pye’s lawyers filed late appeals urging the U.S. Supreme Court to step in, but the justices unanimously rejected to stop the execution.
federal judge rejected those claims, but a three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with Pye’s lawyers in April 2021. Then the case was reheard by the full federal appeals court, which overturned the panel ruling in October 2022. Pye’s co-defendant Adams, now 55, pleaded guilty in April 1997 to charges of malice murder, kidnapping with bodily injury, armed robbery, rape and aggravated sodomy. He got five consecutive life prison sentences and remains behind bars.
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