The State Board of Pardons and Paroles is the only authority in Georgia that can commute a prisoner’s death sentence and spare his or her life. Members include a former state lawmaker, two former district attorneys, a retired state trooper who managed security details for Georgia’s top officials and a former sheriff.
- Former State Rep. Terry E. Barnard, who was appointed in May of 2010 by former Gov. Sonny Perdue, chairs the board. Barnard, who spent 16 years in the state legislature, is serving his ninth term as chairman.
- David J. Herring, a retired lawman who spent more than 27 years with the Georgia Department of Public Safety, is vice chair. During his time as a state trooper, Herring served as team security for the University of Georgia’s football program, a member of the state’s SWAT team and as a lieutenant colonel managing security details for the offices of Georgia’s governor, lieutenant governor, speaker of the house and chief justice. Herring was appointed by former Gov. Nathan Deal in August 2018 and also serves on the Board of the Georgia Department of Community Supervision, according to his online biography.
- Meg Heap is the former district attorney for Georgia’s Eastern Judicial Circuit. Heap began her career as a volunteer coordinator and victim advocate in Savannah. She was named the 2019 DA of the Year by the District Attorneys’ Association of Georgia and appointed to the board by Gov. Brian Kemp in January 2021.
- Joyette Holmes, appointed in January, served as Cobb County’s chief magistrate judge and later as district attorney. Holmes was the first African American and the first woman to hold both positions in Cobb. The Valdosta native began her career as a public defender in Baltimore County, Maryland.
- Wayne V. Bennett was appointed by Kemp on March 5 to replace Timothy Ward, who resigned. Bennett was the sheriff in Glynn County before he retired in 2012. He will serve on the board for the remainder of Ward’s term, which ends in January 2030.
The board is meeting behind closed doors Tuesday morning to determine the fate of Willie James Pye, 59, who was convicted of the 1993 rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend in Spalding County.
Pye’s attorneys are requesting clemency, saying he is intellectually disabled and was represented nearly three decades ago by a “racist, overworked public defender” who “shrugged off any meaningful investment in the case.” The trial lawyer has since died.
Having exhausted his appeal efforts in both state and federal court, Pye’s fate lies in the hands of the parole board. If carried out Wednesday evening, Pye’s execution by lethal injection would be the first in Georgia in more than four years. The pandemic paused the procedures.
Jozsef Papp/AJC
Jozsef Papp/AJC
The board has held four clemency hearings since October 2019. The last commutation of a death-row inmate was Jimmy Fletcher Meders, who sentence was commuted to life without the possibility of parole in January 2020. Clemency was denied to Ray Jefferson Cromartie on October 29, 2019; to Donnie Cleveland Lance on January 28, 2020 and to Virgil Presnell on May 16, 2022.
Cromartie was executed November 13, 2019; Lance was executed on January 29, 2020, while Presnell has not been executed due to an injunction in Fulton County.
