ATLANTA — An execution scheduled for next week would be the first in Georgia in more than four years. The state is trying to move past an agreement made amid the coronavirus pandemic that effectively halted lethal injections.
Georgia
Georgia readies to resume executions after a 4-year pause brought by COVID and a legal agreement
Georgia last carried out an execution in January 2020. Just over a year later, in April 2021, the state attorney general’s office entered into an agreement with attorneys who represent people on death row to temporarily suspend executions for a certain group of people on death row and to establish conditions under which they could resume.
Here’s a look at why it’s been more than four years since Georgia has carried out an execution.
After the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, Georgia resumed executions in 1983. The four-year break in executions caused by the coronavirus pandemic and a related agreement between the state and lawyers for people on death row was the longest pause since then. From 2010 to 2020, the state executed 30 people, including nine in 2016 and five in 2015.
Unlike some other states, Georgia has not appeared to have problems obtaining the drug it uses for lethal injections. Prison officials have said they get the sedative pentobarbital from a compounding pharmacy whose identity is shielded by state law.
Executions in Georgia stopped in 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic. But court proceedings continued, meaning people on death row continued to become eligible for execution as they exhausted their appeals.
In early 2021, a committee of a judicial task force on COVID instructed lawyers who represent people on death row to work with the state attorney general’s office to determine terms under which executions could resume. After negotiations, they entered into the agreement in April 2021.
Executions would not restart until six months after three conditions had been met, according to the agreement: 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.” It also set minimum time intervals for the spacing of executions once they resumed.
The agreement applied to death-sentenced prisoners whose requests to have their appeals reheard were denied by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals while the judicial emergency was in place. The agreement was to remain in effect through Aug. 1, 2022, or one year from the date on which the conditions were met — whichever was later.
State officials obtained an execution order in April 2022 for Virgil Delano Presnell Jr., setting his execution for May 17, 2022. But Presnell’s lawyers with the Federal Defender Program sued, arguing the state had violated the agreement. The judicial emergency had expired in June 2021, but the lawsuit said the other two conditions remained unmet.
A Fulton County Superior Court judge agreed and halted the execution less than 24 hours before it was to take place. The state Supreme Court did not immediately rule on the state’s appeal, so the stay order remained in place until after the weeklong execution window had expired.
The Georgia Supreme Court ruled in December 2022 that the agreement was a binding contract. In a scathing concurring opinion, Justice Charlie Bethel wrote that “everyone should be able to count on the state to honor its word.”
The case returned to the lower court, where the two sides tried to reach a settlement agreement. Lawyers for the state on Feb. 27 informed the lawyers for people on death row that further settlement negotiations were not worthwhile, according to a court filing by Pye’s lawyers.
On Feb. 28, the day before the state obtained an execution order for Pye, his lawyers filed a motion for him to join the litigation over the agreement. They argued that the visitation and COVID vaccine requirements in the agreement were not yet fulfilled.
“We are beyond shocked and outraged by the fact that, in the midst of settlement discussions, the Attorney General’s office was simultaneously acting to pursue the execution of Willie Pye, one of our clients included in those talks, and doing so without informing us or the Court,” said Nathan Potek, who represents death row prisoners for the Federal Defender Program.
Pye’s appeal was decided by the 11th Circuit in April 2021, before the judicial emergency ended, and that’s the relevant date, his lawyers argued. But the three-judge panel of the appeals court didn’t reject his case, instead tossing out his death sentence. The case was reheard by the full appeals court and, ultimately, the 11th Circuit denied his appeal in March 2023, nearly two years after the judicial emergency ended.
Pye’s lawyers noted that their access to Pye remains extremely limited, saying it took more than 24 hours to arrange a phone call with him after the execution order had been issued. They added: “This is not normal or consistent with access to and availability to counsel that was previously possible, and it is unacceptable.”
The state argued that the agreement was temporary and was “expressly limited to a small subgroup of death eligible inmates.” Pye is not in that group and is thus not exempt from execution while the litigation over the agreement is pending, the state says.
The judge agreed with the state, writing that the timeline of Pye’s case is undisputed and leaves him outside of the group covered by the agreement. Pye’s lawyers are seeking to take that decision to the state Court of Appeals.
Pye’s lawyers also filed a new lawsuit last week accusing the state of violating the contract.
Kirby Smart hasn’t hid from how Georgia goes about doling out dollars to its roster.
He wants veterans to make more than newcomers.
“I don’t want you to have to take a discount,” Smart recently told Josh Pate. “OK, a discount might be a little less than year one or two. We have we have traditionally paid our players junior and senior year as much as anybody at those positions. We don’t want to start [earlier] because I want you to earn it and work your way up.”
Smart acknowledges that route might hurt Georgia in recruiting. The 2026 recruiting cycle seems to reflect that. It was the first time Georgia signed a recruiting class that finished outside the top five of the 247Sports Composite rankings since Smart’s first class back in 2016. The Bulldogs had just two players finish in the top 50 of the player rankings, the fewest ever for a Smart signing haul.
Coming out of spring practice, it seems like the Bulldogs did a good job of identifying players who could fit and play immediately. Craig Dandridge, Tyriq Green, Khamari Brooks and Zykie Helton all had strong springs. None were viewed as top 50 overall prospects.
As for the top players on Georgia’s 2026 roster, most of them are in either their third or fourth seasons. KJ Bolden, Ellis Robinson, Nate Frazier and Chris Cole all signed as members of the 2024 recruiting class. Gunner Stockton is in his fifth year at Georgia and second as a starter.
Georgia’s 2026 team will be an older team compared to the one the Bulldogs had last season. Consider that Georgia started the year with only 10 members of the 2022 class on the roster and 13 players from the 2023 recruiting class.
This year, that number is up to 29 when you combine the number of players from the 2023 and 2024 recruiting classes on the Georgia roster. Georgia’s 2026 team will have 34 players with at least three years of experience in Athens. Last season, that number was just 25.
Part of the reason Georgia’s roster is a better reflection of its spending in 2026 is because it did a much better job of retaining talent with its 2024 class than it did with the 2023 group.
Going into last season, 13 of the 26 members of the 2023 recruiting class were no longer a part of the roster.
With the 2024 group, Georgia still has 23 of the 29 players it signed from the 2024 high school recruiting ranks. Georgia also has transfers London Humphreys and Xzavier McLeod entering their third seasons in Athens.
The gap between the two classes is particularly stark at the top. Georgia has not had just one of the 10 top 100 players it signed in the 2024 class depart the program before their third season in Athens. With the 2023 group, six of the 12 top-100 signees had already left Athens.
For as much fretting as there might about the state of Georgia’s current recruiting, the 2024 class was ranked first in the country. That collection of players, which Georgia has been able to keep together, is set to enter their season in Athens.
Georgia paid big to keep players like Bolden, Robinson and Frazier from entering the transfer portal. There was a kernel of truth when Smart ribbed Miami coach Mario Cristobal about sitting too close to Robinson at an award ceremony.
Robinson figures to be one of the best players in the country this coming season. We’ve often seen top recruits — CJ Allen and Monroe Freeling are examples from the 2023 class — have their best seasons in year three, before heading off to the NFL.
That is why it’s so important to keep recruiting classes together and retain talent on an annual basis. Georgia has done a better job with the 2024 class compared to the 2023 class to this point. That’s a big reason why there aren’t as many questions and concerns about Georgia this offseason compared to last offseason, even if it has made Georgia a bit boring to talk about from a national perspective.
Texas, Miami and LSU all spent big money to bring in new talent. With Georgia, it paid top dollar to keep its roster together. No SEC team had fewer players transfer out than Georgia’s 12. That offsets some concern about the Bulldogs also making the fewest additions in the transfer portal.
“We had some new guys on our roster,” Smart told Pate. “We had 26 new freshmen. We had eight new portals. So like with all that going on, we had new people. But at least we knew they were ours. And going through spring practice to me was much more enjoyable because you didn’t have this big dark cloud brewing of was he going to be here?”
Georgia still built a very successful team in 2025, as the Bulldogs won the SEC and made it back to the College Football Playoff. But Georgia has bigger goals and Smart knows it.
“Apparently, all we can do is win the SEC championship right now, so that’s not good enough,” Smart told Finebaum.
The Bulldogs are hoping that a more veteran team will set them up for even more success than they had a season ago. And that veteran element was acquired by keeping its one-time recruits in Athens for seasons three and four.
Georgia
A council meeting is called in a small Georgia town whose mayor fired the entire police department
COHUTTA, Ga. (AP) — The town council in a small north Georgia mountain community called a special meeting Friday evening to discuss reinstating the police department after the mayor fired the chief and all the officers.
The notice for the meeting, posted outside the Cohutta Town Hall, says the council will also consider a request for the mayor’s “immediate resignation.”
Another sign posted earlier this week in the town of about 930 people announced that the police department had been dissolved “per Mayor Ron Shinnick.” It told people who need help to call a non-emergency county number.
The jobs of the chief and about 10 officers were terminated as of Wednesday morning. Exact reasons haven’t been shared publicly, and townspeople are hoping to get some answers at Friday’s meeting.
Shinnick said he took action because of some comments officers posted on social media. The now-former Sgt. Jeremy May said it involved a complaint that he and other officers had raised about the mayor’s wife Pam Shinnick, who had served as the town clerk.
“This all comes to personal vendetta from the mayor, and I wholeheartedly believe that,” May told WRCB-TV. “We took a stand for transparency, and in result, every one of them has lost their jobs.”
The now-former Cohutta Police Chief Greg Fowler told WRCB that he couldn’t comment in detail as the officers were clearing out the police department and removing equipment from the building this week. The mayor told the station he’s not sure what will happen next.
Phone calls and emails left Friday by The Associated Press for Shinnick and the town’s attorney were not immediately returned.
With no police officers working, the Whitfield County Sheriff’s Office said in a brief statement that deputies will help the townspeople if they need it. Cohutta, just south of the Tennessee line, is about 100 miles (161 kilometers) northwest of Atlanta.
Opinion
Former GOP Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan has the best shot at defeating the GOP in November’s general election.
Democratic candidate for governor Geoff Duncan walks in to file paperwork to run for election at the Capitol in Atlanta on Tuesday, March 3, 2026. (Arvin Temkar/AJC)
By Michèle Taylor – For The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
42 minutes ago
I was fresh out of college when I worked on my first presidential campaign for the Democratic candidate in 1988.
Over the years, I have worked on campaigns across Georgia and the nation. I have served as a vice chair of the Democratic National Committee’s national finance committee and as our country’s United Nations human rights ambassador under President Joe Biden.
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Ambassador Michèle Taylor is a lifelong Democrat who served in the Biden administration. She is a professor of the practice at the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs at Georgia Tech. (Courtesy)
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Biden and Obama both evolved in their political positions
Duncan showed he is willing to fight against Trump
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