by Cedric ‘BIG CED’ Thornton
The execution will take place this month.
An execution of a prisoner is being planned in Georgia, which would be the first one taking place since the coronavirus pandemic halted the procedure of using lethal injections.
The agreement made between the attorneys and the state stipulated that executions would not take place until six months after three prearranged conditions had been met. Those conditions were: “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.’”
Last month, on February 28, the day before the state got an execution order for Pye, his attorneys filed a motion for him to join the litigation over the agreement. The lawyers claimed that the visitation and COVID-19 vaccine requirements had not yet been 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, an attorney for the death row prisoners for the Federal Defender Program.
Pye’s attorneys recently also filed a new lawsuit accusing the state of violating the contract. On Monday, March 11, another federal lawsuit was filed saying that the state unconstitutionally created two classes of death row prisoners — those who are covered by the agreement’s protections and those who are not.
Source: Black Enterprise
