Editor’s note: The video in this story is from an earlier report.

ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) — A Georgia death row inmate was denied clemency Tuesday, one day before his scheduled execution.

A clemency hearing for Stacey Humphreys was held Tuesday morning before the State Board of Pardons and Paroles. Hours later, the board released a statement saying it had denied clemency “after thoroughly considering all the facts and circumstances of the case.”

Humphreys, 53, was convicted of malice murder in the 2003 killings of 33-year-old Cyndi Williams and 21-year-old Lori Brown.

There was also a 1 p.m. motion hearing on whether Humphreys’ case qualifies for consideration under the Georgia Survivor Justice Act, which allows for sentencing leniency if there is a history of trauma. As of 5 p.m., a decision on that has not been announced.

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“Mr. Humphreys is the person that a statute like this was designed to cover. He is someone who got to this point because he suffered extreme violence and abuse as a child and that matters,” said Nathan Potek with the Federal Defender Program.

Vanessa Griddine-Jones, the executive director of Georgians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, says she would like to see Humphreys’s sentence lessened to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

“There are horrible crimes out there, but we don’t believe that the state should have an unfettered power to kill a citizen of the state,” Griddine-Jones said. “I would like for them to honor the 11 to 1 decision, and let Stacey finish his sentence in prison.”

Humphreys would be the first person executed in Georgia this year. The death penalty in the state has largely been tied up in litigation over an agreement related to the coronavirus pandemic that defense lawyers contend temporarily shields many death row residents from execution. The last execution in the state was 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.

Humphreys is set to receive a lethal injection at the state prison near Jackson at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, according to the Georgia Department of Corrections.

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