Stacey Ian Humphreys v. Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles, et al.

On the same day that Stacey Ian Humphreys’s death warrant was signed, the Governor appointed Kimberly McCoy to the vacant fifth seat on the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles (“the Board”). The Board is the only Georgia entity empowered to grant executive clemency. Ms. McCoy had just completed a 25-year career as Director of the Victim-Witness Unit for the Cobb County District Attorney’s office, the very office that obtained Mr. Humphreys’s death sentence. In that role, she advocated for the family members of the victims in his case and formed a “close bond” with them. A Georgia Superior Court ruled that Ms. McCoy labored under a conflict of interest and ordered that she recuse herself from the clemency proceedings. While the lower court’s order acknowledged that a favorable vote from at least three Board members was required for a deathsentenced applicant to obtain a commutation, it also held— contrary to the unbroken historical practice in Georgia and the Board’s own understanding—that the Board could consider Mr. Humphreys’s application with only four members. Every other Georgia capital prisoner has had the opportunity to convince three of five Board members to extend mercy. Mr. Humphreys must convince three of four. The questions presented are: When the state departs from its own long-standing practice and procedures and arbitrarily burdens a capital clemency applicant’s likelihood of success in obtaining a commutation, does it (1) deprive him of due process and (2) violate the Equal Protection Clause?