Authorities in Georgia intend to execute a man next month following his conviction for the fatal shootings of two Atlanta real estate agents over two decades ago.
Stacey Humphreys, 53, was convicted of malice murder in the 2003 slayings of 33-year-old Cynthia “Cyndi” Williams and 21-year-old Lori Brown. According to the Department of Corrections, he is scheduled to receive a lethal injection at the state prison near Jackson at 7 p.m. on Sept. 16.
Humphreys is slated to become the first individual executed in Georgia this year. The state's use of the death penalty has been largely stalled by litigation surrounding a coronavirus pandemic agreement, which defense attorneys argue temporarily protects numerous death row inmates from execution. Georgia last executed a prisoner in March 2024.
Humphreys was previously scheduled to die last December, but the execution was halted after his lawyers filed a petition asking a judge to order two members of the State Board of Pardons and Paroles to recuse themselves from hearing his clemency petition. Humphreys' lawyers argued that the two parole board members had conflicts of interest because they had played roles during his trial.
Kimberly McCoy, one of the board members, was a victim advocate with the Cobb County district attorney’s office at the time of Humphreys’ trial and was assigned to work with the victims in the case. The other, Wayne Bennett, was the sheriff in Glynn County, where the trial was moved because of pretrial publicity, and Humphreys’ lawyers argued he oversaw security for the jurors and Humphreys himself during the case.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney put the execution on hold while he considered the case. He ruled in March that McCoy must recuse herself because of a “material conflict of interest,” but found that Bennett had very little recollection of the trial and did not have a conflict.
McBurney also denied a request from Humphreys' lawyers to order the governor to appoint a substitute member of the parole board so that their client's case can be heard by a full five-member board and to order the board to stay his clemency hearing until that has happened. McBurney found that was up to the governor and the board but wrote that they “will no doubt be guided by the finality of the death penalty and the firm tradition of (if not the right to) a five-member deliberative panel in determining how to best proceed” with his case.
Humphreys' lawyers appealed to the Georgia Supreme Court, which declined to hear the case. They subsequently filed a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court, which remains pending.
Humphreys' lawyers said a replacement for McCoy should be appointed for his clemency hearing and urged the parole board to put the execution on hold until that happens.
“There should be no shortcuts when imposing the ultimate punishment,” they said in an emailed statement.
Humphreys entered a sales office in a model home for a new subdivision in Powder Springs, a suburb about 20 miles (32 kilometers) northwest of Atlanta, around midday on Nov. 3, 2003. The two women worked there as real estate agents, and evidence presented at trial showed that Humphreys forced them to strip naked and give him their bank PINs before fatally shooting them.
Humphreys took the women’s driver’s licenses and bank and credit cards, and withdrew more than $3,000 from their accounts, according to court filings. He told police after his arrest that he had recently taken out some high-interest payday loans and needed money for a payment on his truck.
Humphreys was on parole for a 1993 felony theft conviction at the time and had been released from prison 13 months earlier.
Witnesses told police they saw a man fitting Humphreys’ description at the sales office and a vehicle in the parking lot that matched his black Dodge Durango. Police zeroed in on Humphreys and tried to question him at his Dunwoody home days later. He fled and was arrested in Wisconsin after leading police on a high-speed chase.
He told investigators he didn’t remember his actions at the time of the killings, but when asked why he fled, he said, “I know I did it. I know it just as well as I know my own name,” according to court filings.
Police found a Ruger handgun that matched the 9 mm bullets used to kill the women in the console of the rented Jeep Humphreys used to flee. Blood on the gun matched Williams’ DNA, and blood in Humphreys’ truck matched Brown’s DNA, according to court documents.
