Hey there, folks. It is Tuesday, December sixteenth, and an execution that was scheduled for tomorrow night has been halted with just hours to spare. You could argue, but this doesn't mean that this death row inmates life is about to be spared with that. Welcome to this episode of
Amy and t J and Robes. This is happening. A lot is happening with executions this year, just as now we're getting a new report that shows support for the death penalty is at the lowest level we've seen in fifty years, but the numbers of executions at the highest numbers we've seen are a lot.
That is a strange hyah, how do you make that work shift there? Because it's interesting. You've got a state like Florida and Governor DeSantis trying to say, hey, if we are legalizing executions and we've sent people to death, why are people on death row for up to four decades. Let's get some closure and some justice for these families. And so he's pushing a lot of execution forward. Number
nineteen is scheduled for later this week. But yeah, there's been a lot of news, a lot of headlines and a lot of questioning not just to the legality but to the morality of what we do here in this country.
And look, that debate will of course continue. The other part of that's come up in a handful of cases literally is about guilt or innocence. Correct, that we're close to possibly condemning someone and putting someone to death, it's something that we can't take back with some questions about their guilt or innocence. Now, this week we were supposed to see Rope. Yes, Christmas is next week. We were wrapping up the year here in this country by getting
two more executions on the books. That would have been the forty seventh and forty eighth if I have that correct, I say would have been because right now one has been halted. And this was one rogues we were keeping an eye on in Georgia that there were some questions they were trying to get it stopped. But now another reason has popped up. But we'll tell you who we're talking about.
First of all, yes, we're talking about fifty two year old Stacey See Humphreys. He was convicted in a double murder back in two thousand and three. And yes, we've seen his attorneys over the last couple of weeks, which is very oftentimes the case, trying lots of different reasons or ways to try and get this executed. Execution stayed and he had a clemency hearing actually scheduled for today.
So his lawyers have been working diligently around the clock trying to get some movement or at least trying to stop the execution. And turns out something worked, at least temporarily.
So well, the courts had been turning them down left and right. They were making all kinds of arguments about the execution. Every judge, every court has said no, no, no, no, no. Now something else has happened. Because there was an order issued yesterday on Monday, again this is Monday, which would have been two days before the planned execution. This Parole Board issued an order suspending I think that's the word they use, suspending his execution scheduled for tomorrow night. They
did this and didn't really give any clarity. They didn't explain why, but they said his execution is now on.
Hold, correct, and his clemency hearing, which was scheduled for today has been postponed until further notice. So they have not said when they're going to reschedule that, and it would appear as though you would need to have a clemency hearing. And this was scheduled the day before his scheduled execution. So if they can't put together the clemency hearing, it makes a lot of sense why they had to postpone his actual execution. Now here's the deal. They do
have a death warrant. I believe that was signed December third. It was, It was signed a couple weeks ago, and it's valid through noon on Christmas Eve.
So they have until then.
Literally to figure out what they're doing with this clemency hearing, which would then clear the way for the execution.
Okay, well, if you just stopped there for a second, he's going to make it to twenty twenty six. Who's working on Christmas week trying to kill a guy?
And there's a lot of confusion as to what they have to get in place in order to make this clemency hearing fair.
And the guy we're talking about here, this is some pretty heinous stuff. Malice murder, that is what they called it down in Georgia. Malice murders what he was convicted of in two thousand and three. Killed two women, young women, Laurie Brown who's twenty one, Cindy Williams, thirty three. OK, if you done down in those areas, you know, model homes, a lot of subdivisions pop up and they put it's usually kind of not a lot of traffic, to be honest,
in those neighborhoods. But the couple people, a couple of real estate agents. They were stationed in a model home trying to sell this neighborhood. He comes in, ties them up, forces them to strip naked, essentially tortures them so that they will give their pen numbers to their ATM and sure enough later thousand of dollars are taken out of their accounts. But he killed these women, shot these two women.
That was the scene. So he is convicted of some pretty horrific There's not questions at least in this about guilt or innocence.
No. I believe he even admitted to police early on that he was responsible and gave an explanation that he needed that. I think he ended up getting three thousand dollars and he needed that money because he had taken out some high interest loans in a new vehicle, and so just the callousness that he would just disregard to young women's lives Cindy Williams thirty three, Lorie Brown, twenty one, because he needed some cash to pay off some loans
that he had taken on irresponsibly. That's about as disgusting as it gets.
So a lot of routes they tried, at least his legal team in the courts failed, failed, failed every time along the way. But this is why now it appears he had a shot to survive. I guess Robes just passed tomorrow because the reasons now it's been halted don't necessarily point to his innocence or a court action. This seems Robes, it seems to me just a delay. Is not fair to say this is just a dela.
It seems as though this is inevitable.
It is almost certainly going to happen, because, yes, it's not a question of guilt or innocence. It's not a question as to whether or not he received a fair trial. It's not a question about anything that Typically we would see execution stayed for and a life in prison sentence imposed in lieu of an execution.
That is not this case.
This is about a parole board, which is comprised of five members, and he would need three of those board members to say and to vote for clemency for him to have a shot at not being executed on Wednesday, which was when he was originally scheduled for. But now two of those members, they claim his lawyer's team claim, have a conflict of interest in making their decision.
So yes, if two of the five needs to recuse themselves, then there's only three people left on the board to vote. His attorneys arguing he has the right to a full five members, and that is why we have a delay. They're trying to figure out how much time do we get to possibly get two more in there. There are folks from the state who are arguing there's nothing that says he is legally has the right to five people
three can vote, So that is the hold up. But it does appear at least right now he is going to live to I don't know, to fight another day. But he is going to get to live another day because it is the understanding he is going to get a clemency hearing. When can you put this together quickly enough? The judge say, quickly enough. Now just the three is fine, and then where's everybody going on for Christmas? What's happening?
And clock is ticking. We got to kill this guy before Santa Coms is what we're up against in Georgia.
It's a a cob deadline this time of year certainly to even consider. But yes, I mean it looked as though, I mean, it was curious to me that the parole board decided to go ahead, maybe just out of an abundance of caution, to just go ahead and say, let's just put this on pause, because it does seem as though the three members would be enough, according to state law for him to get a fair shake at clemency, to have those three members say yes or no.
Would you want the five though if you're like.
Of course you would, of course you would yes.
And maybe you take inventory. Maybe the two that got dumped off weren't even fans of yours in the first place.
The interesting thing is the one of the of the board members actually recused herself. She recognized that there could be an appearance of impropriety, even though she said I would be able to make this. She was a victim's advocate at the same time surrounding his case, so she had personal ties to the case. The other member was, I believe, the acting sheriff in the county where his trial was moved to.
And so he's saying.
Look, if he oversaw protecting the jurors and protecting people who were a part of the trial, that maybe he would have an unfair view of this man and what he did because he was connected to the case on a level where he was dealing with jurors and potentially victims, etc.
Look, when we've said plenty of times here, if this is a matter of killing someone, why not take your time in the final days and weeks to get it right. And so if they're getting it right, that's fine, But it is fascinating Robes to imagine that they are up against the clock in Georgia. If we want to kill this guy, we need to do it before everybody goes to sleep on Christmas Eve, like the death ways noon, right,
and on Christmas Eve is when it expired. That's just so he is waiting to if he makes it to Christmas Eve at noon, he'll survive to the need. That is macab That is just Look, the crime is horrific. This is not what we're doing, but we are. This is state sanctioned killing that we're doing here, and so it just something about that just feels icky as hell.
Yes, and look, he's I know this sounds crazy, but he's been on death row. I at least these crime, this crime happened twenty two years ago, compared to some of the time. We've seen plenty of inmates this year who ended up being executed on death row.
We were talking three decades, even four decades.
I remember thirty seven years on one. Do you remember one?
Worse more, there was in forty something years I believe one of them this year. So yes, it was the one where the father of the child who was killed actually perished. Three judges perished, like everyone involved in the trial had died, and he was waiting. It was forty something years, so yes, twenty two years. What's another month or two to make sure that this is done correctly.
Well, he was one you and I had planned we were going to do a preview of this execution. Look, because of a lot of the legal things that had come up, but also it is always a public fascination with the final meal, and it's bizarre to a certain degree, but it's also understandable. It's human nature to it's something we can't relate to. We don't know what that's like, and it's kind of related in, kind of steeped in
religion as well. A last meal, a final supper kind of a thing, and some argue it's just something we use to make the public feel better about what we're about to do.
I was just going to say it, does it relieve some guilt that we give these the worst of the worst, these notorious killers, who've been convicted of the most heinous crimes, that somehow we give them one last little bit of pleasure before we kill them, That somehow that makes us
feel better about what we're doing. I don't know, but yeah, we were going to do an entire podcast on last meals because this particular inmate, Stacy Humphries, was making headlines for what he was requesting and what it seemed as though the Department of Corrections in Georgia was going to give him.
Have you seen one more a bigger one, or more fascinating one than this one? We've seen a lot over the years, not just this year, but I can't remember one quite like that.
This was the most jaw dropping last meal request I have seen, and.
One that it seemed as though the date was going to honor just because of its size. It was. I guess gludness is how a lot of people would have put it.
And OBEs, yes, described he's a large man six two three hundred pounds or so, so but his even still his last meal request was a lot. So here's what actually Georgia put out as his last meal. Barbecue, beef brisket, pork ribs, bacon, double cheese, burger, french fries, coleslaw, cornbread, buffalo wings, meat lover's pan, pizza, vanilla ice cream, and two lemon lime sodas.
Have you ever seen anything like that?
Oh? H and haven't seen anyone? I mean, good for him, he's not going out with the steak tartar, I mean, why the hell? I mean, go crazy And that last moment's almost like he's trying to eat himself to death before the execution. But that's incredible. If they are, they put it out there. Maybe they will, and some will argue, why are we given anybody any comfort in the last second given what they have done? I don't know. Maybe
because we're supposed to be better than they are. Maybe because we're supposed to be a little decent, a little human. I don't know what Georgia's rules are, but rules I didn't realize stay vary on how much they will let them get away with, but generally it seems like they like to make these requests happen. I don't know Georgia's limit on the cost. Florida has a forty dollars one. I think a couple other states have a fifteen or twenty five dollars one, but I don't know if it's unlimited.
I think we need to do a podcast on this, because, I mean, I don't know why. It's fascinating, but it is to see what we're willing to spend, what length we're willing to go to do we order out from restaurants? Does it have to be made within a prison kitchen? As you point out, different states have different rules, and this one is exceptional.
And of course in the middle of this, Texas obviously on last meals, they have by far executed more people than any other state since the death penalty was reinstated in nineteen seventy six. They stopped this robes legislation. Some state centator got pissed because a death row inmate ordered some big, extravagant meal and didn't need it, so it was a waste. Came back. They have passed legislation you do not get a last meal in Texas. I get that,
though it's cafeteria food is the standard thing. Some people do will say that makes sense. Some people hear that I didn't know about this, like, oh.
Well, look, if you're going to stand by your death penalty and stand by the executions of convicted killers, then I understand with that same reasoning in mind, why would you give them some sort of pleasure before you kill them? Did they afford that to their victims. I'm sure that's not the case, But I was going to ask, could any human being eat all of that food? First of all, I wouldn't even have an appetite if I were about to be executed.
That's why they said the guy in Texas didn't eat.
Yeah, because I get that when I'm stressed or upset or nervous or anxious, I cannot.
Eat one more note there. Some states have gone to given the meal a day or two ahead of time, not on the day, because obviously they wouldn't have appetime.
Yeah, that seems remarkable and yes, all of this food. I I could have been starved in the desert for two weeks and I couldn't finish half of that, So that seems excessive. And that's why I'm just curious why Georgia put that out there and said here's what he's asking for, and they didn't say they weren't going to give it to him. I just thought that was maybe they were testing to see what public reaction would be like.
I don't know, but it was baffling.
All right, Well, folks, stay with us here because as we wrap up this year, one of the primary resources, a great resource for all the information having to do with executions here in the United States. They have put out their annual report and it's pretty shocking to see how the numbers of executions have gone up so much, but the number of people supporting the death penalty has gone down. Stay here, all right, We continue here on Amy and TJ talking about the execution in Georgia that
has now been postponed. As they're trying to I guess some eyes and cross some te's and make sure they're doing everything wrong a postponed clemency hearing they're in Georgia. We will wait to see what happens. We were just talking. I forgot about this roges. We're talking about last meal requests and this guy in Georgia had a buffet that he ordered. Part where we were talking where this history,
where the ritual come from. It's based somewhere in nineteenth century, somewhere in Europe, where they would do this to people who were condemned because they thought they were appeasing their spirits and they wouldn't come back and haunt them.
Essentially, you know what, that makes the most sense out of anything.
Guilt, So like, either it's guilt we feel about what we're about to do to you, so let's just give you this meal, or hey, let me make sure I don't get cursed because or haunted later because I just killed you for me.
That makes way more sense.
It's about, yes, the person trying to feel better about what they're about to do, including the entire state.
Yes, right, we did mention. It's supposed to be forty eight scheduled death penalty executions this year. Tomorrow would have been forty seven. With the guy in Georgia, that one's postponed, so now the next one would be Thursday, Florida, No kidding,
would be doing the last one of the year. If that one goes through, so we would end up with that would be the forty seventh then, but Robes for Florida makes sense that they've had their record year, they're going to wrap it up for the country and they'll be the last execution of the year, blowing away their previous record.
Yes, this is And by the way, Florida, you have this stat in here with nineteen executions this year. Again, if Thursday's execution takes place, that's forty percent of the national total this year.
That is remarkable.
And by the way, it looks as though this Thursday execution is going to go forward. With Frank Wallace, he's fifty eight years old. The Florida Supreme Court just refused his last appeal for his execution to be stayed.
But he did have a couple good points.
He was nineteen at the time of the murders, and his lawyers have argued that he's intellectually disabled. He's one of those ones, whereas IQ is seventy two, seventy four, and we know right now the Supreme Court had ruled seventy was where you can be considered intellectually disabled enough to not be eligible for execution, So he's right on the margins there. But so far it looks as though that execution is going to go forward.
And I will pick up on that point you just made as we want to share some some info, some headlines from the annual report from the Death Penalty Information Center if you don't know them, if you want to know anything about executions in this country. Again, it's called Death Penalty Information Center, and it is incredible source of information that just a database of upcoming executions, past executions, every state, all the history, even all of the inmates.
It really is a good resource. But they put out their annual report robes and I'll start. We'll what you were just saying about the Supreme Court didn't realize they did not stay a single execution this year.
A conservative leaning Supreme Court. I guess that shouldn't be shocking, not one.
I don't know what the history was previous years, but you got forty eight. They didn't listen to one of them, and didn't we have several where we heard dissenting voices. We're on the Supreme Court. We're trying to step in.
Yes, correct, the liberal leaning justices. A couple of Times wrote some scathing descents basically to say that they disagreed with going forward with the execution and the two that we did see stay. Those executions that we covered were governors intervening, the state intervening, certainly not the Supreme Court of the United States.
That was one of the headlines from their annual report. Also, just the note here, twenty five executions last year we already mentioned, forty eight were expected here in this year. That's a huge jump. And here is the thing, where are we on public support for the death penalty. They're telling us now that support for the death penalties at fifty two percent. Those who now in this country say they are opposed are at forty four percent in robes.
They say that's the highest number we have seen in some fifty years in the country.
Wow.
And do they give a reason behind it? Just maybe there's more public information all over.
Time, sentiment over time, people younger people are more against it. Also, you get more and more of these high profile cases. It goes everywhere on social media. Somebody gets off death row, they're innocent. Those things stick.
Look, and I think that that is a huge part of it.
People want to generally support the idea, but when they start hearing the details, when they start looking into the cases. With the availability of media and information on these murderers from our state to state, you really can get into these stories and really start questioning whether or not they deserve to die, whether or not they're actually guilty of the crimes. When people start looking at cases and seeing how our justice system operates, they see the unfairness of it in a lot of cases.
So that's very telling.
And this report said that maybe juries are starting to pick up on that. They say we saw a decline this year. Now only twenty two death sentences in the country. I say only, but that is a decline. Also, they say fifty six percent of juries that had the choice of choosing life or the death penalty chose life. So the majority of the cases that means in which a jury had to decide the death penalty, the majority of
them chose to give life. In the last one here I mentioned to you before we came on that just disturbing, chilling, just kind of said, damn. The number of military vets executed.
The ten military veterans executed this year, I remembered as some of the cases we covered, looking to see that they were military trained, that they had fought in wars. Many of them obviously came back from those wars suffering, and that has been a huge cry from so many folks who say, hey, we do not take care of
our vets mentally. We don't consider what they've been through, we don't consider what they've lost in defending our country, in serving our country, and we don't take care of their mental needs when they come back.
There was a high historical number. I can't remember the I can't put it in the right context, but this was a high number historically based on previous years. And that is that's that's that's a disproportionate representation of death row inmates, ten out of the forty eight.
That's so terrible with math, But what is that percentage?
It's right, that's twenty percent. That's incredibly somebody needs to look into that. I hope they are working on studying that. That is disturbing to think, but that's a disproportionate number. Folks, We look, we always appreciate you. This was something I guess Robes we didn't intend to at the beginning of the year, but we kind of fell into as more and more cases came up, and more and more executions were planned, and more and more, frankly, questions came up
about a lot of them. This is something we kind of been diving into this year and followed a bunch of a bunch of executions, and crazy as it sounds, there was some relief the young man that these sentence was commuted to life. It seemed like the right thing. You remember the one who his brother was on Yes, yes, yes, yes, for that crime. It's not like we're rooting for one
way or another kind of a thing. And there are victims involved in all these but man, when it comes to killing somebody state sanctioned and we're supposed all be on board with this thing, it just we got to get it right. We have to be one hundred percent correct.
And we've said this in both of the cases where the executions were stayed. Both of the victims families were very much in favor of the person convicted of killing their loved one to not die, that there was value in their life, that there was value in them being able to either be a cautionary tale for others or at least helping other inmates who are going to go off and live better lives, that there was value in
them living versus seeing them die. And so we've said that seems to be something that should be considered in every case. Let the victim's family have a say in what happens.
What was the sad one now I can't remember. I think it was Florida where the guy was desperate to meet.
He murdered his mother.
Yeah, gas station robbery, and he ended up through letters because he wasn't allowed to meet him. For all the reasons why they keep safety protocols in place where victim's family members cannot meet someone on death row who's convicted of killing their loved one. That makes sense. But he actually developed a relationship with this man, this inmate before he died and was begging the governor not or at least to stay his execution. But it didn't happen. That
was one of the sadder stories that we told. But certainly I do believe, and I know you do too, that this is something that our country has legalized, This is still something that the majority of American support. We should be able to talk about these stories. Should it should? You should know how it happens. You should know what happens. You should know who we're killing and why we're killing them. It's all a part of at least bolstering what you
already believe or questioning what you think you know. Those are both very important things to do.
All right, folks, who will continue to keep an eye on and update you about what happens in Florida on Thursday as well, and again as a reminder, top right corner of your Apple podcast app on our show page, that button says follow click that you can subscribe and then get our updates. And there are a plenty, it seems these days, But for right now on behalf of your robo Kim TJ. Holmes talk to you all sooner