In the first execution in the southern US state in more than four years, a man found guilty of kidnapping, raping, and killing his ex-girlfriend was executed in Georgia, reports RTE.
At 3:03 a.m. Irish time, Willie Pye, 59, was put to death by lethal injection in a Jackson, Georgia, jail.
Pye’s last-minute request for mercy was denied by the State Board of Pardons and Paroles and the US Supreme Court.
Pye’s counsel argued for mercy by citing his IQ of 68, intellectual disability, and a horrific upbringing marked by “profound poverty, neglect, constant violence, and chaos in his family home,” reports RTE.
Furthermore, Pye was not well-represented during his trial by a “racist, overworked public defender,” who has since passed away, according to his attorneys.
In 1996, Pye received his first death sentence for the 1993 killing of Alice Yarbrough, his ex-girlfriend.
Pye’s death sentence was reversed by an appeals court in 2021 on the basis that his court-appointed attorney had provided him with inadequate representation, reports RTE.
Later on, the death penalty was again applied.
According to a statement from the Georgia Department of Corrections, Pye accepted a last prayer but did not record a final statement.
This year, there have been two further executions in the US, reports RTE.
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