by Ross Williams, Georgia Recorder, [This article first appeared in the Georgia Recorder, republished with permission]
September 16, 2026
Convicted murderer Stacey Humphreys was not executed Wednesday night as scheduled after the Georgia Supreme Court upheld a Cobb County judge’s order temporarily halting the execution.
The pause is for Humphreys to receive a hearing under the Georgia Survivor Justice Act, which Gov. Brian Kemp signed into law last year. The state law is intended to allow abuse victims to petition for reduced sentences if their abuse led them to commit a crime.
“Given the important and novel questions regarding the newly enacted SJA raised by this litigation, this appeal will be considered in the ordinary course of business and according to a forthcoming scheduling order,” the justices wrote in an order Wednesday. “We leave undisturbed the stay order issued by the Cobb County Superior Court.”
The Cobb County order does not set a date but calls on the parties to schedule a hearing in around 60 days.
Humphreys, now 53, was convicted of the 2003 kidnapping, robbery, assault and murder of Cyndi Williams and Lori Brown, real estate agents working in a model home in a new subdivision in Cobb County. Humphreys held the women at gunpoint and forced them to strip and tell him their PINs before killing them and stealing money from their bank accounts, prosecutors said. He did not deny committing the crimes.
Though the reprieve is temporary, anti-death penalty advocates celebrated it as a victory.
“I think that it’s the right decision to make, to take the time to determine such a new law and to understand if it applies and how it applies so that it can benefit victims of childhood violence or household violence as Stacey experienced,” said Vanessa Griddine-Jones, executive director of Georgians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.
Medical evidence submitted during Humphrey’s 2007 trial showed he had experienced long-term abuse as a child, and experts testified that that abuse led to mental health problems and criminal behavior.
But prosecutor Sabrina Graham with the Georgia Attorney General’s office argued in court Tuesday that if Humphreys received a hearing under the act, countless other death row inmates will seek the same.
“I’ve been working capital cases for over two decades, and in every single death penalty case I’ve had, the exact same evidence: family abuse, mental health disorders contributed to the crime,” she said. “Every single one of them. That means that every single one of those inmates that are sitting on death row can now use the Survivor Justice Act to come along and ask for their sentence to be modified. And that creates a whole new avenue of litigation that there is nothing in the intent of the SJA.”
Attorney General Chris Carr’s office said they intend to continue to pursue an appeal.
Georgia Recorder is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Georgia Recorder maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jill Nolin for questions: info@georgiarecorder.com.