Execution suspended for man convicted in killing of 2 real estate agents in Cobb County

The execution for the man convicted of killing two Cobb County real estate agents has been suspended, according to Steve Hayes, communications director for the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles Monday.

Stacey Humphreys, who was convicted of the deaths of two Cobb County real estate agents in 2007, faced a clemency hearing on Tuesday ahead of his scheduled execution on Wednesday. However, his hearing was postponed until further notice, thereby suspending his execution.

The parole board received “a clemency application requesting that the Board exercise its authority to commute his sentence of death,” which led them to suspend his execution date, according to an order from Monday.

It is unclear when a clemency hearing will be scheduled.

His case had issues involving a juror

A Cobb County jury found Humphreys guilty of the Nov. 3, 2003 murders of Cindy Williams and Lori Brown in Powder Springs, Georgia. Both women were real estate agents.

However, when it came to issuing an appropriate sentence, 11 jurors were faced with hostility from another, who insisted on the death penalty despite the other jurors’ decision to give him life without parole.

They eventually voted for Humphreys to be executed .

Because of this, the legitimacy of the death sentence has been questioned by Humphreys’s attorneys and anti-death penalty advocates .

The case and Humphreys’s request not to be executed have been heard by federal courts, the appellate court, and the U.S. Supreme Court. Though most of the Supreme Court justices declined to review the case, Supreme Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson reviewed the case, stating that the rest of the Supreme Justices “(allowed) a death sentence tainted by a single juror’s extraordinary misconduct to stand,” according to court records.