COBB COUNTY, Ga. — The execution of Georgia death-row prisoner Stacey Ian Humphreys, 53, remains on hold after the Georgia Supreme Court upheld a Cobb County judge’s order granting him a hearing under the state’s new Survivor Justice Act, with the high court now weighing whether he qualifies for that hearing at all.
Humphreys had been scheduled to die by lethal injection at 7 p.m. Sept. 16 at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson for the 2003 murders of real estate agents Cynthia “Cyndi” Williams, 33, and Lori Brown, 21. Cobb County Superior Court Judge Tyler J. Browning issued the stay late Tuesday, Sept. 15 — less than 24 hours before the execution and hours after the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles denied Humphreys’ clemency request. The state sought an emergency appeal to lift the stay, but the Georgia Supreme Court declined, writing that it would “leave undisturbed the stay order issued by the Cobb County Superior Court.” As of Sept. 17, no new execution date has been set, and the case has been referred to the state’s high court, which called the questions raised “matters of first impression under Georgia law.”
The 2003 murders
The case dates to Nov. 3, 2003, when Williams and Brown were working at a homebuilder’s sales office inside a model home in a Cobb County subdivision near Powder Springs. According to the Georgia Supreme Court’s factual summary, Humphreys — a convicted felon on parole — entered the office at about 12:40 p.m. carrying a stolen 9mm handgun. Prosecutors presented evidence that he forced Williams to undress and disclose her bank PIN, then called her bank to check the account balance. Court records say Williams was assaulted, choked with an article of clothing, and shot in the back and head; evidence indicated Humphreys placed a bag of balloons between the gun and her body to muffle the sound.
Brown arrived during or shortly after the attack on Williams and was also assaulted, forced to disclose her ATM PIN, and shot after being forced to kneel; investigators said Humphreys used balloons and Brown’s folded blouse in an apparent attempt to muffle that shot as well. He took both women’s driver’s licenses, ATM cards and credit cards before leaving around 1:30 p.m. A builder working in the home’s basement found Brown after hearing the security system’s door chime and called 911; a responding officer found Williams.
Arrest, trial and appeals
Investigators tied Humphreys to the crime through a coworker’s tip and a search for his Dodge Durango. He fled Georgia after failing to report to a scheduled meeting with his parole officer on Nov. 7, 2003, and was captured the next day in Wisconsin following a multi-jurisdictional high-speed pursuit. A Ruger 9mm pistol recovered from his rental vehicle matched ballistics from the murder weapon and had Williams’ blood on it; a bloodstain in the Durango contained Brown’s DNA. Investigators said the victims’ ATM cards were used after their deaths to withdraw more than $3,000, and that Humphreys deposited $1,000 into his own account two days after the killings. Asked why he fled, Humphreys reportedly told investigators, “I know I did it.”
The trial was moved from Cobb County to Glynn County over pretrial publicity; jury selection began in September 2007. A Glynn County jury convicted Humphreys of malice murder and related charges, finding ten statutory aggravating circumstances and recommending death for both murders; he also pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. The Georgia Supreme Court later struck one aggravating circumstance on direct appeal but left the death sentences in place. Humphreys pursued state and federal habeas appeals for more than a decade, centered in part on claims that a juror concealed her own history as a crime victim during jury selection and pressed other jurors toward a death verdict after an initial 11-1 vote for life without parole. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear that claim in October 2025, over dissents from Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson.
A December 2025 execution date was halted separately amid litigation over potential conflicts of interest among members of the Board of Pardons and Paroles; one board member recused before the warrant expired unused. Georgia set the new execution window for noon Sept. 16 through noon Sept. 23, and the Department of Corrections scheduled the execution for 7 p.m. Sept. 16 — which would have made Humphreys the first person executed in Georgia this year. The parole board, chaired by Joyette Holmes, denied clemency Sept. 15; Humphreys’ attorneys separately argued the board violated due process because only four of five required members considered the application.
The Survivor Justice Act dispute
Humphreys’ attorneys, Brian Kammer and Nathan Potek, sought relief under Georgia’s Survivor Justice Act, signed into law by Gov. Brian Kemp in 2025, which allows some people convicted of crimes before July 1, 2025 to seek reduced sentences when documented family violence, dating violence or child abuse significantly contributed to the offense. The defense has presented medical evaluations from Humphreys’ 2007 trial describing chronic childhood physical and sexual abuse, including a skull injury, cigarette burns, neglect, exposure to drugs and alcohol, and sexual abuse by a family member, which trial experts linked to his later mental health and criminal history.
“He is someone that got to this point because he suffered extreme violence and abuse as a child. That matters,” Potek said. Kammer added that Humphreys “endured years of arbitrary beatings” and argued more broadly that “homicides don’t occur out of the blue. They often happen in the context of people who suffered severe abuse.”
Prosecutors dispute that the law applies. According to Georgia Recorder, prosecutor Sabrina Graham warned during arguments that if the law is read broadly, “every single one of them” — meaning death-row inmates — “can now use the Survivor Justice Act to come along and ask for their sentence to be modified.” The state and the law’s legislative sponsor have argued it was intended for people who harm their own abusers, not for defendants whose crimes, like Humphreys’, were committed against people unconnected to the abuse. Judge Browning, in granting the hearing, acknowledged the law may not have been written with cases like this in mind but found the statute’s text does not clearly exclude them. A Cobb County District Attorney’s Office spokesperson said, “Our focus continues to be on the victims and their loved ones, giving them the support and encouragement they need.”
Current status
The Georgia Supreme Court has been asked to decide whether Humphreys qualifies for a Survivor Justice Act hearing before any hearing on the merits can proceed. Browning has said he would consider lifting the stay if an appellate court rules Humphreys does not qualify. The stay does not disturb Humphreys’ convictions, which are not at issue in this proceeding; both his murder convictions and death sentences remain in place unless a court later grants relief. Before the stay, the Department of Corrections had already released Humphreys’ requested last meal — including barbecue beef brisket, pork ribs, a bacon double cheeseburger, french fries, Buffalo wings, a meat-lovers pan pizza, butter pecan and peach ice cream, and two caffeine-free sodas.
Newsleash will update this story as the Georgia Supreme Court, Cobb County Superior Court, Georgia Attorney General’s Office or Department of Corrections issue further rulings or scheduling orders.
Compiled from reporting by: Georgia Attorney General’s Office, Georgia Supreme Court records, Georgia Department of Corrections, Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles, Associated Press, CBS News, Fox 5 Atlanta, Georgia Recorder, WABE, WSB-TV/WSB Radio, WTOC and 11Alive.
