Clemency meeting to be held for Georgia man scheduled to be executed March 20

JACKSON, Ga. – The Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles has announced that on March 19, it will convene a clemency meeting for 59-year-old Willie James Pye, a condemned inmate facing execution. 

Pye’s execution has been scheduled by the Spalding County Superior Court for March 20 at 7 p.m. at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson. The window for execution runs from March 20 to March 27.

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During the March 19 meeting, members of the Georgia Parole Board will listen to testimony both for and against granting clemency for Pye. 

The meeting is slated to commence at 9 a.m. Following deliberations, the Board will decide whether to commute Pye’s death sentence to life imprisonment with or without the possibility of parole, issue a stay of execution, or deny clemency. In Georgia, only the Parole Board holds the authority to grant executive clemency to condemned inmates.

Pye’s conviction stems from the 1993 murder of his former girlfriend Alicia Yarbrough, for which he was found guilty of malice murder, kidnapping with bodily injury, armed robbery, burglary, and rape. He was sentenced to death for malice murder after a trial in June 1996.

The last execution in Georgia was January 2020.