The first man to be executed in the US state of Georgia for four years has been pronounced dead – and his last meal was pretty hefty.
Willie James Pye was sentenced to death in 1993 for the murder, kidnap, armed robbery, rape and burglary of Alicia Lynn Yarborough.
He was put to death by lethal injection, and was pronounced dead at 11.03pm local time on Wednesday evening.
The Georgia Department of Corrections said Pye accepted a final prayer but ‘did not record a final statement’.
However he did chow down on a large last meal: two chicken sandwiches, two cheeseburgers, french fries, two bags of plain potato chips and two lemon-lime sodas.
On Tuesday, Pye’s lawyers made a last-ditch attempt to stay his execution, saying he shouldn’t be put to death because he is intellectually disabled and feels remorse for his victim’s family, the Independent reports.
They say their client has an IQ of 68, and had been ‘effectively abandoned’ by his previous lawyers during his trial, meaning there was ‘no one and nothing to stand between my client and death’.
His low IQ, and other factors including the poverty, neglect, and violence he faced since birth, were not heard at trial – and allegedly some of his original jurors no longer wanted him to be put to death, Pye’s lawyer said.
But the board rejected the request, confirming Pye’s execution would go ahead as planned. In Georgia, the board is the only authority to vacate a death penalty sentence.
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