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Execution set for Georgia man who kidnapped, raped and murdered ex-girlfriend

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Execution set for Georgia man who kidnapped, raped and murdered ex-girlfriend

A man who killed his former girlfriend three decades ago is set to be put to death in March in what would be Georgia’s first execution in more than four years.

A judge on Thursday signed the order for the execution of Willie James Pye, who was convicted of murder and other crimes in the November 1993 killing of Alicia Lynn Yarbrough. The execution is scheduled for March 20 at 7 p.m., after the judge set an execution window between noon that day and noon on March 27.

Pye, 59, would be the first person executed in Georgia since January 2020. Georgia executions are carried out at the state prison in Jackson by injection of the sedative pentobarbital.

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Because of the coronavirus pandemic, executions were effectively halted for a certain group of people on Georgia’s death row by an agreement between their attorneys and the state. Pye’s lawyer cited that agreement when asking a court Wednesday to prohibit the state from seeking an execution warrant against him for the time being.

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Pye and Yarbrough had dated on and off, but at the time of her death Yarbrough was living with another man, according to court filings. Pye, Chester Adams and a 15-year-old boy had planned to rob that man and bought a handgun before heading to a party in Griffin, prosecutors have said.

The trio left the party around midnight and went to the house where Yarbrough lived, finding her alone with her baby. They forced their way into the house, stole a ring and necklace from Yarbrough and took her with them when they left, leaving the baby alone, prosecutors have said.

Willie James Pye is seen in this Georgia Department of Corrections photo. (Georgia Department of Corrections via AP)

They drove to a motel, where they took turns raping Yarbrough and then left the motel with her in the teenager’s car, prosecutors have said. They turned onto a dirt road and Pye ordered Yarbrough out of the car, made her lie face down and shot her three times, according to court filings.

Yarbrough’s body was found on Nov. 17, 1993, a few hours after she was killed. Pye, Adams and the teenager were quickly arrested. Pye and Adams denied knowing anything about Yarbrough’s death, but the teenager confessed and implicated the other two.

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The teenager reached a plea agreement with prosecutors and was the main witness at Pye’s trial. A jury in June 1996 found Pye guilty of malice murder, kidnapping with bodily injury, armed robbery, rape and burglary, and sentenced him to death.

Pye’s lawyers had long argued in courts that he should be resentenced because his trial lawyer didn’t adequately prepare for the sentencing phase of his trial. Pye’s lawyers argued that his trial attorney failed to do a sufficient investigation into his “life, background, physical and psychiatric health” to prevent mitigating evidence to the jury during sentencing.

They presented evidence that his childhood was characterized by poverty, abuse and neglect. They also argued that he suffered from frontal-lobe brain damage, potentially caused by fetal alcohol syndrome, that harmed his ability to plan and control his impulses.

A federal judge rejected those claims, but a three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with Pye’s lawyers in April 2021. But then the case was reheard by the full federal appeals court, which overturned the panel ruling in October 2022.

Adams, now 55, pleaded guilty in April 1997 to charges of malice murder, kidnapping with bodily injury, armed robbery, rape and aggravated sodomy. He got five consecutive life prison sentences and remains behind bars.

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When Georgia courts were under a judicial emergency because of the coronavirus pandemic, lawyers for a group of people on death row entered into an agreement with the office of state Attorney General Chris Carr to temporarily suspend executions and establish conditions under which they could resume.

The agreement said that, with one named exception, executions wouldn’t resume until six months after three conditions had been met: the expiration of the state’s COVID-19 judicial emergency, the resumption of normal visitation at state prisons and the availability of a COVID vaccine “to all members of the public.”

The agreement applied to death-sentenced prisoners whose requests to have their petitions reheard were denied by the 11th Circuit while the judicial emergency was in place. That agreement is currently the subject of litigation in Fulton County Superior Court with executions for the prisoners in question on hold for now.

Pye’s lawyer argued in a court filing Wednesday that he qualifies as a third-party beneficiary of that agreement even though the 11th Circuit’s final rejection of his request for a rehearing came in March 2023. He asked the court to allow him to join the pending litigation, which would protect him from execution for the time being.

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Lawyers for the state responded in a filing Thursday that Pye was not covered by the agreement and should not be allowed to join the pending litigation.

The judge who signed the execution order also wrote that Pye is not part of the agreement and that it, therefore, does not prevent his execution from proceeding.

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Palestinian immigrant convicted of second murder-for-hire plot hatched from North Carolina cell

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Palestinian immigrant convicted of second murder-for-hire plot hatched from North Carolina cell

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A Palestinian immigrant was convicted by a federal jury in North Carolina of plotting to arrange the murders of three people by his fellow inmates after having pleaded guilty to having tried to murder others, authorities said Friday. 

Nahro Sudoi Innab, 70, of Rocky Mount, N.C., was found guilty of three counts of making an interstate call in a murder-for-hire scheme, the Justice Department said. 

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A Palestinian immigrant was arrested in a murder-for-hire plot in North Carolina. (United States Department of Justice and Google Maps)

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“This Palestinian immigrant came here to take advantage of the American dream, but he has repeatedly tried to hire thugs to murder his perceived enemies,” said Ellis Boyle, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina.

Innab was sitting in jail waiting to start his prison term in a separate murder-for-hire plot when he tried to pay off other inmates $10,000 to kill three men. 

The intended victims were Rocky Mount small business owners, federal prosecutors said. A cooperating defendant informed the FBI of the plot and captured an audio recording of Innab’s murderous plan.

A sign at the U.S. Department of Justice is seen on June 14, 2021, in Washington, DC. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

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“Even after being federally charged, arrested, and pleading guilty to a murder for hire plot, Nahro Innab continued his demented and dangerous plans,” said James C. Barnacle Jr., the FBI Special Agent in Charge in North Carolina.

Barnacle said a coordinated law enforcement effort thwarted the multiple murder plots, adding that Innab will be “safely behind prison bars for years to come.”

The Department of Justice seal is seen on a lectern ahead of a press conference announcing efforts against computer hacking and extortion at the Department of Justice in Washington, DC on November 28, 2018. (MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)

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Innab faces up to 30 years in prison for the new crimes. 

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Olympian Sha’Carri Richardson pleads with officer to ‘work with me’ during speeding arrest: ‘I’m begging you’

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Olympian Sha’Carri Richardson pleads with officer to ‘work with me’ during speeding arrest: ‘I’m begging you’

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Bodycam footage obtained by Fox News Digital showed Olympic gold medal sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson “begging” an officer not to arrest her after she was caught driving recklessly.

Sgt. Gerald McDaniels, driving in the center lane, spotted the Olympian flashing her brights at the car in front of her and announced that Richardson’s Aston Martin topped 104 mph on State Road 429 near Stoneybrook Parkway in Winter Garden, Florida. The officer reached speeds of at least 110 mph in order to catch up.

“I would wipe that smile off your face,” the sergeant told Richardson upon approaching her passenger window. “You’re being stopped for dangerous, excessive speed.”

 

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Sha’Carri Richardson of Team United States looks on after failing to qualify for the Final during the Women’s 100 Metres Semi-Finals on day two of the World Athletics Championships Tokyo 2025 at National Stadium on Sept. 14, 2025 in Tokyo, Japan.  (Hannah Peters/Getty Images)

Richardson said her back tire was at 29 PSI and that her phone slipped, switching the mode in her car and causing her to speed. That did not please McDaniels.

“You’re driving at 104 miles an hour in a 65 mile-an-hour zone with subpar equipment, flashing people to get out of your lane, following too close, using every lane to pass everybody, cutting me off, passing a car on the inside shoulder with your hazard lights on. You’re going to jail for dangerous excessive speeding,” he said.

Richardson replied that she did not know she was speeding, to which the sergeant answered, “That’s why they give you a speedometer.”

“I am a law-abiding citizen, sir,” Richardson, who was arrested for assaulting her boyfriend, fellow Olympic sprinter Christian Coleman, last year, kicked off a plane in 2023, and barred from the Tokyo Olympics due to a positive marijuana test, said.

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Gold medalist Sha’Carri Richardson of Team United States celebrates with the national flag after competing in the Women’s 4×100 Metres Relay Final on day nine of the World Athletics Championships Tokyo 2025 at National Stadium on Sept. 21, 2025, in Tokyo, Japan. (Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

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After some back and forth, the officer’s decision was final, and reality set in for Richardson, who said there was “no intention” for her to break the law.

“Please sir. I really was not intentionally speeding. Sir, please. I’m begging you,” Richardson said. “Don’t take me to jail. I will do everything. Please, sir. I promise you, I don’t want to go to jail, I’m right here.”

The police report, also obtained by Fox News Digital, said that Coleman showed up to the scene and was arrested for resisting after refusing to identify himself. His car was found to have smoking paraphernalia. Another sprinter, Twanisha Terry, also arrived.

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Richardson and Coleman moved past their issue last year, which occurred at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on July 27, just one week before the U.S. Track and Field Championships. Coleman declined to be a victim in the case, a police report said, and made it clear that he wanted to move on from the “sucky situation.”

Richardson has an Olympic gold medal from the 2024 4×100-meter relay in Paris, and she won the 100 meters at the 2023 World Championships in Budapest. Both Richardson and Coleman won world titles in 2023 and 2025 in their respective 4x100s.

Christian Coleman and Sha’Carri Richardson pose for portraits during a studio photo session on the sidelines of the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo on Sept. 21, 2025. (Andre J Isakovic/AFP via Getty Images)

Richardson settled for silver in the 100 meters in Paris, while Coleman still awaits an Olympic medal — he did win the 100 and 4×100 at the 2019 World Championships.

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Florida couple sues fertility clinic after allegedly giving birth to someone else’s baby

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Florida couple sues fertility clinic after allegedly giving birth to someone else’s baby

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A Florida couple is suing a fertility clinic weeks after the woman gave birth to a baby that allegedly isn’t biologically their child.

Steven Mills and Tiffany Score gave birth to a “beautiful, healthy female child” in December, but when the couple, who are both White, realized their new daughter appeared to be “racially non-Caucasian,” they ordered genetic testing that proved she wasn’t theirs, according to court documents obtained by Fox News Digital.

The lawsuit claims the Fertility Center of Orlando somehow implanted the wrong embryo in Score’s uterus five years after the couple had their embryos frozen at the clinic.

“Of equal concern to the Plaintiffs is the obvious possibility that someone else was implanted with one or more of their embryos and is pregnant with or has been pregnant with and is presently parenting one or more of their children,” the lawsuit, filed in Orange County, Florida on Jan. 22, added.

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Steven Mills and Tiffany Score holding the baby girl Score gave birth to.  (MILLS SCORE FAMILY ATTORNEY MARA HATFIELD)

The lawsuit also claims that the couple has asked the clinic to no avail to help reunite the daughter Score gave birth to with her biological parents and to find out what happened to their own frozen embryos.

They also want the clinic to pay for the genetic testing of every child born whose parents had embryos implanted at the clinic in the last five years after the couple used their services.

“An intensely strong emotional bond was created on the part of Tiffany and Steven with the unborn child Tiffany carried during the nine months of her pregnancy, and despite the certain knowledge that Shea is not their genetically matched child, the emotional bond grows stronger every minute of every day that Shea remains in their care,” the lawsuit says. “They would willingly keep her in their care; however, for the sake of both Shea and her genetic parents, they recognize that Shea should legally and morally be united with her genetic parents so long as they are fit, able and willing to take her.”

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Doctor removing embryo samples from cryogenic storage. (Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

At an emergency hearing on Wednesday, lawyers on both sides said that clinic had preliminarily agreed to do genetic testing, the Orlando Sentinel reported.

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However, Francis Pierce III, a lawyer for the clinic, told the Sentinel that there are privacy issues with genetically testing other babies born to patients at the clinic.

“Patients would have to agree to be tested,” he told the newspaper. Pierce added that attorneys on both sides are working for a quick settlement. 

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A Florida couple is suing a fertility clinic weeks after the woman gave birth to a baby that isn’t biologically their child. (ASTIER/BSIP/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

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Dr. Milton McNichol, who heads the clinic, was fined $5,000 in May 2024 after a Florida State Board of Medicine routine inspection found equipment that didn’t meet “performance standards,” and non-compliance with a risk management program, according to the newspaper.

Fox News Digital has reached out to lawyers for the clinic and McNichol for comment.

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