Georgia readies to resume executions after a 4-year pause brought by COVID and a legal agreement

By KATE BRUMBACK
Associated Press

ATLANTA (AP) — 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 executions. A judge last month signed an execution order for 59-year-old Willie James Pye. The Department of Corrections set his lethal injection for March 20. Pye was convicted of murder and other crimes in the November 1993 killing of former girlfriend Alicia Lynn Yarbrough. Even if the courts allow Pye to be put to death, a small group of death row prisoners remains shielded from execution by litigation over the COVID-related agreement.