Texas set to execute man in triple murder as Georgia execution halted by judge
Texas plans to execute a man convicted of killing three people in 2005, while a judge in Georgia has put another scheduled execution on hold.
Texas is scheduled to execute LeJames Norman, 40, on Wednesday for the 2005 shooting deaths of three people at a home in the small town of Edna. Norman and Ker'Sean Ramey had hoped to steal cocaine they believed was in the house, but found no drugs and instead fatally shot all three occupants — Samuel Roberts, Tiffani Peacock and Celso Lopez. Norman was arrested about five months later while trying to cross back into the US from Mexico, and pleaded guilty to capital murder, leaving a jury to determine his sentence. He is set to die by injection of pentobarbital at Huntsville prison. The state parole board voted Monday against commuting his sentence, and an appeals court rejected a stay request; his lawyers have now asked the US supreme court to intervene. Ramey, also sentenced to death for the killings, is scheduled for execution next week.
In Georgia, Stacey Humphreys, 53, had been due to be executed the same evening for the 2003 murders of real estate agents Cyndi Williams, 33, and Lori Brown, 21, in Powder Springs, near Atlanta. Humphreys forced the women to undress and hand over their bank PINs before shooting them, then withdrew more than $3,000 from their accounts. He was later arrested in Wisconsin following a high-speed chase. Late Tuesday, a judge issued a stay after Humphreys' lawyers filed for resentencing under a new state law allowing abuse survivors to have death sentences reconsidered. The judge said he could lift the stay if an appeals court rules before Wednesday evening that Humphreys is not entitled to a hearing. His lawyers have separately argued a biased juror tainted his sentencing, and that his clemency hearing was unfairly conducted with only four of five parole board members after one recused over a conflict of interest. The board denied clemency on Tuesday.
If carried out, Norman's execution would be the fifth in Texas this year, while Georgia has yet to execute anyone in 2026. Florida remains the country's busiest death chamber, accounting for more than half of the 25 executions carried out in the US so far this year.
