Georgia death row inmate set to be executed after convicted murderer was denied clemency despite his lawyers arguing he is intellectually disabled

A death row inmate in Georgia is set to be executed on Wednesday night after he was denied clemency despite his lawyers arguing he is intellectually disabled. 

Willie James Pye, 59, was convicted of murder and other crimes in the November 1993 killing of Alicia Lynn Yarbrough.

He is set to receive a lethal injection of the sedative pentobarbital at 7pm at the state prison in Jackson in what will be the state's first execution in more than four years.

Pye's lawyers had filed an eleventh hour request for clemency, arguing that the 1996 trial was 'a shocking relic of the past' and that the inmate was intellectually disabled. 

But the Georgia Parole Board rejected those arguments after a closed-door meeting Tuesday. 

Willie James Pye, 59, was convicted of murder and other crimes in the November 1993 killing of Alicia Lynn Yarbrough

He is set to receive a lethal injection of the sedative pentobarbital at 7pm at the state prison in Jackson in what will be the state's first execution in more than four years

Attorneys for Pye claimed the local public defender system had severe shortcomings in the 1990s.

'Had defense counsel not abdicated his role, the jurors would have learned that Mr. Pye is intellectually disabled and has an IQ of 68,' they said.

Defendants who are intellectually disabled are ineligible for execution. 

Experts said that Pye meets the criteria, but that the burden of proof in Georgia was too high to reach, his lawyers argued.

Pye had been in an on-and-off romantic relationship with Yarbrough, but at the time she was killed, she was living with another man. 

He, Chester Adams and a 15-year-old had planned to rob that man and bought a handgun before heading to a party in a nearby town, prosecutors have said.

The trio left the party around midnight and went to the house where Yarbrough lived, finding her alone with her baby. 

They forced their way into the house, stole a ring and necklace from Yarbrough, and forced her to come with them, leaving the baby alone, prosecutors said.

The group drove to a motel, where they raped Yarbrough and then left the motel with her in the car. 

They turned onto a dirt road and Pye ordered Yarbrough out of the car, made her lie face down and shot her three times, according to court filings.

Yarbrough's body was found on November 17, 1993, a few hours after she was killed. Pye, Adams and the teenager were quickly arrested. 

Pye's lawyers had filed an eleventh hour request for clemency, arguing that the 1996 trial was 'a shocking relic of the past' and that the inmate was intellectually disabled

Pye and Adams denied knowing anything about Yarbrough's death, but the teenager confessed and implicated the other two.

The teenager reached a plea agreement with prosecutors and was the main witness at Pye's trial. 

A jury in June 1996 found Pye guilty of murder, kidnapping, armed robbery, rape and burglary, and sentenced him to death.

Pye's lawyers have argued in court filings that prosecutors relied heavily on the teenager's testimony but that he later gave inconsistent statements. 

Such statements, as well as Pye's testimony during trial, indicate that Yarbrough left the home willingly and went to the motel to trade sex for drugs, the lawyers said in court filings.

Lawyers representing Pye also wrote in court filings that their client was raised in extreme poverty in a home without indoor plumbing or enough food, shoes or clothing. 

His childhood was characterized by neglect and abuse by family members who were often drunk, his lawyers wrote.

His lawyers also said that Pye suffered from frontal lobe brain damage, potentially caused by fetal alcohol syndrome, which harmed his planning ability and impulse control.

Pye's lawyers had long argued in courts that he should be resentenced because his trial lawyer didn't adequately prepare for the sentencing phase of his trial. 

His legal team argued that the original trial attorney failed to sufficiently investigate his 'life, background, physical and psychiatric health' to present mitigating evidence to the jury during sentencing.

A 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. Pye is scheduled to be the first person executed in Georgia since January 2020.