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Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
After Executing an Intellectually Disabled Man, Georgia Rewrote Its Death Penalty Law
Gov. Brian Kemp signed a bill Tuesday that will transform how intellectual disability is handled in death penalty cases in Georgia. Now in alignment with 26 other states that still practice capital punishment, Georgia will require a judge to determine during a pretrial hearing whether a defendant is intellectually disabled or not. Prior to the signing of this bill, intellectual disability was determined by a jury while also considering the defendant's guilt or innocence. 'Yesterday marked a significant step forward for Georgia and the intellectual disabilities community. After over a decade of advocacy to end the execution of individuals with intellectual disabilities, Georgia lawmakers from across the political spectrum have responded bravely,' said Joia Thornton, in a statement to Capital B Atlanta. Thornton is the national director of the Faith Leaders of Color Coalition, which is one of many advocacy groups to support the bill. As it is with the criminal justice system overall, Black people make up a disproportionate percentage of death row inmates nationally. In Georgia, where the population is about one-third Black, 44% of death row inmates are Black. Anti-death penalty and disability advocates have criticized the system for years because defendants had to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that they were intellectually disabled, one of the highest standards of proof required in criminal law. Since Georgia passed a law in 1988 banning the execution of intellectually disabled people, not a single defendant has proven they were intellectually disabled. Over a decade later, the U.S. Supreme Court would rule in 2002 in Atkins v. Virginia that executing an intellectually disabled person would violate the Eighth Amendment's 'cruel and unusual punishment' clause. In the 23 years since the Supreme Court's ruling, however, Georgia had fallen behind other death penalty states who updated their laws to comply with the court's decision. Last year, Georgia drew national attention for executing a man who multiple experts deemed intellectually disabled. Willie James Pye and two other men were convicted in 1996 of the kidnapping, robbery, rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend Alicia Yarbrough. Pye's death sentence had been overturned after his original attorney's competence was called into question. But it was later reinstated by an appellate court, and he was executed by lethal injection on March 20, 2024. According to the AP, Pye was determined to have suffered from frontal lobe brain damage that may have been caused by fetal alcohol syndrome, which would inhibit his planning ability and impulse control. Though legislation to address intellectual disability in death penalty cases has been in the works for many years, it wasn't successful until it gained support from GOP leaders like Speaker of the House Jon Burns and the bill's author, state Rep. Bill Werkheiser. In March, the bill passed unanimously in the state House and 53-1 in the state Senate. 'In our work, we know that progress doesn't happen overnight. The signing of HB 123 into law is a testament to the persistence, steadfastness, and community behind this effort. This law will undoubtedly save lives. We are thankful we had Chairman Werkheiser as a champion and partner in this monumental victory,' said Terrica Redfield Ganzy, executive director for the Southern Center for Human Rights, in a statement. House Bill 123 became active law when it was signed Tuesday, unlike many other bills from this legislative session that Kemp has signed that do not take effect until July 1. The bill, however, will not impact the sentences or convictions of the 34 people currently on death row in Georgia. The post After Executing an Intellectually Disabled Man, Georgia Rewrote Its Death Penalty Law appeared first on Capital B News - Atlanta.
Yahoo
26-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
One Year After Controversial Execution, Georgia Looks to Reform Death Penalty Laws
Georgia made national headlines last year when the state executed Willie James Pye, a man who multiple expert witnesses had deemed intellectually disabled. Pye and two other people had been convicted of the 1996 murder, kidnapping, rape, and robbery of his ex-girlfriend, Alicia Yarbrough, in Spaulding County. Anti-death penalty advocates worked diligently to get Pye off death row, and they almost succeeded. After his attorney's competence was called into question, Pye's death sentence was reversed, only to be reinstated by an appellate court. He was executed by lethal injection on March 20, 2024. One year after Pye's execution, Georgia advocates are hopeful that a bill making its way through the State Legislature can reform the way intellectual disability is handled in death penalty cases. 'It's almost a little bittersweet knowing that had the standard been [different], that might well have prevented the execution of Willie Pye,' said Nathan Potek, Pye's attorney through the Federal Defender Program. House Bill 123 would align Georgia with the other 26 states that practice capital punishment. Under current state law, a defendant must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that they are intellectually disabled; the decision is made by a jury at the same time as those jurors decide the defendant's guilt or innocence. The new bill, which is currently awaiting approval by the senate judiciary committee, would require that intellectual disability be determined in a pretrial hearing and set a lower threshold for proving it. Black people are overrepresented on death rows nationally; in Georgia, Black residents make up one-third of the state's overall population but 44% of all people currently on death row. Ten people on death row have been convicted in metro Atlanta, four in Fulton County, four in Cobb County, and one in Gwinnett County. Seven of them were Black. 'There's a lot of historical racial terror implications built within and baked into the death penalty system in America,' said Joia Thornton, founder and national director of the Faith Leaders of Color Coalition, a nonprofit that organizes with Black and Indigenous clergy who are working to end the American death penalty system. Though race is a component to any criminal justice reform conversation, advocates for this bill, like Wesley Myrick, executive director at the Georgia Interfaith Public Policy Center, chose not to make it central to their work. 'This bill does not seek to resolve any conversations related to the death penalty and race — it is simply not topical,' Myrick said. 'Rather, this bill is about our shared obligation to love and protect our neighbors with intellectual disabilities to ensure they are treated compassionately through our adjudication processes and in a manner that honors their humanity above all.' While the bill is limited in its scope — Georgia has tried 90 death penalty cases since 2015 but only 10 have had intellectual disability claims — advocates believe it would be an important step in the right direction. 'If we as a society have determined that it's wrong to execute folks with intellectual disability, then we should make sure that we aren't doing that,' Potek said. In 1988, Georgia became the first state to ban the execution of intellectually disabled people. The law was passed more than a decade before the Supreme Court made its 2002 ruling in Atkins v. Virginia, finding that it was a violation of the 'cruel and unusual punishment' clause in the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution to execute a person with an intellectual disability. Though Georgia's legislation was ahead of its time, critics say the law is ineffective. Since it was adopted, no one has been declared intellectually disabled and therefore ineligible for execution, according to the Southern Center for Human Rights. Critics of the law have been working to change it for years. Myrick said their relative success this year has been due to the interest of the speaker of the house and the support of the majority party, which he described as dedicated to ensuring that persons with disabilities are protected. The post One Year After Controversial Execution, Georgia Looks to Reform Death Penalty Laws appeared first on Capital B News - Atlanta.
