ATLANTA (AP) — A federal judge declined Wednesday to halt next week's scheduled execution of a Georgia man who argued that he should be shielded by an agreement reached during the COVID-19 pandemic that set conditions for the state to resume putting condemned people to death.
Stacey Humphreys, 52, is scheduled to die Dec. 17 for the 2003 killings of 33-year-old Cyndi Williams and 21-year-old Lori Brown, who were fatally shot at the real estate office where they worked in an Atlanta suburb.
U.S. District Court Judge Leigh Martin May heard arguments in Atlanta and ruled that Humphreys failed to show that his rights to due process and equal protection would be violated by putting him to death now.
Nathan Potek, an attorney for Humphreys, had argued that those constitutional rights would be violated because a deal made when executions were paused during the pandemic is still being used to delay some executions, but not for Humphreys and others.
“Even though Mr. Humphreys is on death row right now, he retains that fundamental right to life,” Potek said.
After Georgia put executions on hold during the pandemic, the state attorney general’s office entered into an agreement with lawyers for people on death row to set the terms under which they could resume. The state Supreme Court has affirmed that the agreement is a binding contract.
The text of the agreement says it applies only to people on death row whose requests to have their appeals reheard were denied by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals while a pandemic-related judicial emergency was in place.
The judicial emergency was lifted in June 2021 and the appeals court rejected Humphreys’ request in October 2024. Lawyers for the state argue that Humphreys is, therefore, not covered by the agreement and his execution should be allowed to proceed.
“Ultimately, we haven’t infringed on any constitutional process that they are entitled to,” said Sabrina Graham, an assistant Georgia attorney general.
Under the agreement, three conditions must be met before executions could be scheduled for the covered prisoners: the expiration of the state’s COVID-19 judicial emergency, the resumption of normal visitation at state prisons and the availability of a COVID-19 vaccine “to all members of the public.”
Although the judicial emergency was lifted more than four years ago, defense attorneys say the other two conditions have not been met because visitation is “severely restricted” compared with pre-pandemic levels and infants under 6 months old are not eligible for the vaccine.
A judge ruled earlier this year that the vaccine condition hasn’t yet been met, and the state’s appeal of that ruling is pending before the Georgia Supreme Court. The judge plans to handle the visitation issue separately.
Humphreys’ lawyers wrote in a lawsuit filed in October that the agreement’s clear purpose was to allow lawyers for people on death row to adequately prepare for clemency proceedings and for the “frantic time period immediately leading up to execution proceedings.”
They argue that seeking to execute people who weren’t included while the agreement remains in effect creates “a distinct, disfavored class” of death row prisoners who won’t be guaranteed he same level of legal representation.
Lawyers for the state said Humphreys has failed to show how his lawyers have been restricted from preparing for his upcoming execution because of COVID-19 or that the state has arbitrarily chosen to exclude him from the agreement.
The state’s lawyers also pointed out that death row prisoner Willie James Pye made similar arguments before his execution in March 2024 and a federal judge found that “the State clearly has a valid basis for drawing a line between the inmates covered and not covered by the Agreement.” A similar case brought by three other people on Georgia’s death row was rejected by a federal judge and is pending before the 11th Circuit.
The judge noted that Humphreys had due process in the legal system and, now that he has been convicted and his appeals are exhausted, the state has the authority to execute him. There is “considerable variability” on how long it takes for an execution to be carried out, and that has never been found to cause equal protection concerns, she wrote. Humphreys failed to show that he should be protected by the agreement because he was “expressly excluded from its terms,” she found.
Humphreys, who has multiple health issues, also asked the state to modify its execution protocol to allow him to stand or sit fully upright during the lethal injection process because he is likely to struggle to breathe if lying on his back.
In a newly filed federal complaint, his lawyers said that if the changes are not made “he will be subjected to a torturous and grotesque spectacle.”
“Mr. Humphreys will very likely struggle to breathe while in this supine position, with a constant feeling of choking and fear that a person being strangled would experience,” wrote Dr. Paul Zolty, who evaluated Humphreys’ health.
Graham told Judge May that she’s been in touch with corrections officials about the issue. The judge and the lawyers said they will await more information on how the state plans to proceed regarding the chair position. If necessary, the judge will schedule a hearing Friday on that issue, she said.
Associated Press writer Kate Brumback in Atlanta contributed.
FILE - Guards stand at the front of Georgia Diagnostic Prison, Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2011, in Jackson, Ga. (John Spink/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, File)
FILE - The gurney used for lethal injections sits behind glass windows in a small cinder block building at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson, Ga., Sept. 7, 2007. (Ben Gray/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, File)
GOMA, Congo (AP) — In a maternity ward in eastern Congo, Irene Nabudeba rested her hands on her bulging midsection, worried about giving birth in a city under rebel control.
The conflict that flared this year has left many medical supplies stranded beyond the front line. Infrastructure like running water has collapsed, along with the economy in Goma, the region's humanitarian and commercial hub.
And now the one glimmer of hope for mothers — a free maternity care program offered by Congo's government — has ended after it was not renewed in June. It was not clear why, and Congolese and M23 officials did not respond to questions.
Nabudeba has five children and wonders whether the sixth will survive.
“At the hospital, they ask us for money that we don’t have. I’m pushing myself to come to the consultations, but for the delivery ... I don’t know where I’ll find the money,” she said at the Afia Himbi health center.
Several women told The Associated Press they cannot afford maternal care after Congo's program that was aimed at reducing some of the world's highest maternal and neonatal death rates ended earlier this year. The program launched in 2023 offered free consultations and treatment for illnesses and at-risk pregnancies at selected health facilities across the country.
Congo ranked second in maternal deaths globally with 19,000 in 2023, behind Nigeria's 75,000 deaths, according to U.N. statistics.
Health workers said more women in Goma are now giving birth at home without skilled help, sometimes in unsanitary conditions, leaving them vulnerable to hemorrhage, infection or death.
Clinics and hospitals were already struggling after the M23 rebels, backed by neighboring Rwanda, seized Goma in an escalation of fighting in January.
Although clashes have subsided amid U.S.- and Qatar-led peace efforts, fighting continues and the conflict has collapsed public institutions, disrupted essential services and displaced more than 700,000 people, according to the U.N. humanitarian office.
In Goma, the armed rebels are seen everywhere, making a pregnant woman's walk to clinics another source of anxiety.
Freddy Kaniki, deputy coordinator of M23, asserted to the AP that the free maternal care “was not renewed because it was a failure.” Congolese officials did not respond to questions.
Rwanda denies supporting the M23 despite U.N. experts saying they have evidence of it. Rwanda prides itself on health care and recently signed a five-year deal with the U.S. for investment of up to $158 million in its own healthcare sector.
The collapse of essential services in rebel-held areas, combined with mass displacement and insecurity, has left civilians struggling to access even basic care.
An International Committee of the Red Cross assessment in September found that at least 85% of health facilities were experiencing medicine shortages, and nearly 40% have seen an exodus of staff after the conflict surged in the provinces of North Kivu and South Kivu.
The ICRC in October said 200 health facilities in eastern Congo had run out of medicines because of looting and supply disruptions. Doctors Without Borders, or MSF, has reported hospitals attacked, ambulances blocked and medical staff threatened or killed.
Childbirth at a clinic in Goma now costs $5 to $10, out of reach for many families in a region where over 70% of the population lives on less than $2.15 a day, according to the World Bank.
Franck Ndachetere Kandonyi, chief nurse at the Afia Himbi health center, said the number of births there under the free program had jumped from around five a month to more than 20. But the program ended in June.
Facing a table of statistics in his office, Kandonyi said the number of births per month is now down to nine.
“When a parent cannot even pay 10,000 Congolese francs ($4.50) for their wife’s or child’s care, it’s a real problem,” the nurse said.
Meanwhile, banks have closed in Goma, prices have soared and the dollar has depreciated.
Nabudeba's husband, a driver, has been unemployed since January. She said her family is barely surviving.
“When the war broke out, we lost all our resources,” she said. “Lately, the situation has not been favorable, and we are suffering greatly.”
Across town at the Rehema Health Center, Ernestine Baleke waited for help with her ninth pregnancy, with concern on her face. She said she doesn't know where she will get money for the delivery.
Her husband lost a factory job when the place was looted earlier in the conflict, she said. Then their house burned.
“I don’t even have 100 francs (45 cents) in my pocket,” Baleke said.
She walks more than half a mile to the hospital because she cannot afford transportation. Three months remain before her delivery.
“The authorities must restore free healthcare," Baleke said. “We risk dying in our homes while giving birth.”
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Ernestine Baleke walks to the Rehema Health Center to receive pre-natal care that used to be free at the Rehema Health Center in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo, Nov. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)
Ernestine Baleke rests on a wall after receiving pre-natal care that used to be free at the Rehema Health Center in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo, Nov. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)
Ernestine Baleke receives pre-natal care that used to be free at the Rehema Health Center in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo, Nov. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)
Irene Nabudeba, pregnant, mother of 5, waits for a consultation that used to be free at the Afia Himbi Hospital in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)
Irene Nabudeba, pregnant, mother of 5, waits for a consultation that used to be free at the Afia Himbi Hospital in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)
