Judge halts a Georgia execution over inmate's concerns about the clemency process

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KENNESAW, Ga. (AP) — A Georgia judge on Monday ordered a temporary pause to a December execution that was already put on hold, saying questions about the state's clemency process must be addressed before Stacey Humphreys ' death sentence could be carried out.

Humphreys, 52, was facing scheduled execution Dec. 17 but the procedure was paused just days before he was to have received a lethal injection.

He was convicted of malice murder and other crimes in the 2003 shooting deaths of Cyndi Williams, 33, and Lori Brown, 21, at the real estate office where they worked in Cobb County, northwest of Atlanta.

At issue: Humphreys' lawyers contend that two members of Georgia's parole board have conflicts of interest which would taint their participation in a clemency hearing.

Humphreys’ lawyers earlier this month filed a petition asking a judge to order the two members of the parole board to recuse themselves from considering his clemency petition.

The lawyers said one of those board members, Kimberly McCoy, was previously a victim advocate with the Cobb County district attorney’s office at the time of Humphreys’ trial and was assigned to work with victims in the case.

Another board member, Wayne Bennett, was the sheriff in Glynn County, where the trial was moved because of pretrial publicity. Humphreys’ lawyers say Bennett oversaw security for the jurors and Humphreys himself during the case.

In an order filed Monday, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney wrote that “pressing ‘pause’ on the execution machinery until we answer the non-frivolous question raised by Petitioner concerning the proper composition of the Board for his clemency hearing is the correct course of action.”

He ordered lawyers for both sides to file additional legal briefs on the issue by Jan. 19.

Additionally, the judge wrote in his order that Humphreys deserves to have the conflict of interest question researched and argued thoroughly so that a parole board free of conflicts of interest can decide his case at a clemency hearing.