JACKSON, Ga. — As the Georgia Department of Corrections prepares for its first execution in nearly 4 years, the GDC has announced what Griffin man Willie James Pye's last meal will be.
Pye was convicted of malice murder back in June 1996 for killing Alicia Lynn Yarbrough in Griffin. They say Pye and Yarbrough had been in an on-again off-again romantic relationship.
He was convicted by a jury of murdering Yarbough and raping her.
Pye, who is set to be executed at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, requested two chicken sandwiches, two cheeseburgers, French fries, two bags of plain potato chips and two lemon-lime sodas.
According to the Associated Press, prosecutors accused Pye and two others of going to Yarbrough's home to rob the man she was living with at the time. But they instead found only Yarbrough, the AP reported.
They say they took Yarbrough to a motel where she was raped and then taken to a dirt road where she was shot three times while lying facedown on the ground.
Prosecutors say that Pye was the one who pulled the trigger.
Pye's execution is scheduled to take place at the Georgia Diagnostic Class Prison, which is where all of Georgia's executions have taken place in recent years.
However, the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles will meet on Tuesday for a clemency hearing where they will have the opportunity to decide whether or not to commute Pye's death sentence to life in prison without parole.
They also have the option of issuing a stay of execution, which would put Pye's execution on hold.
The Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles hear arguments for sparing Pye's life or continuing with the execution at that hearing. If they choose not to take any action, Pye will be executed the next day, Wednesday, at 7 p.m.
Back in 1976, the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty and, since then, 75 men and one woman has been executed, the Georgia Department of Corrections said. Pye is set to be put to death by lethal injection.
The state placed all executions on hold during the COVID-19 pandemic which is why there have been so few executions in recent years. The last scheduled execution was Donnie Cleveland Lance, 66, who was put to death on Jan. 29, 2020.
Lance was convicted of killing his ex-wife and her boyfriend back in 1997.
For his last meal, he had two chili steak burgers, french fries, onion rings, mustard, ketchup and a soda, the Georgia Department of Corrections said at the time.
In Georgia prisons right now, there are 36 men and one woman who have been sentenced to death.