Remove ads by Supporting Independent News
Written by: A. Smith
Published December 11, 2025 @ 1:45 PM ET
Update: A federal judge has declined to halt the upcoming execution of death row inmate Stacey Ian Humphreys, and state officials have released his last meal request ahead of next week’s scheduled lethal injection.
U.S. District Court Judge Leigh Martin May ruled Wednesday that Humphreys failed to show that his constitutional rights would be violated if the state proceeds with his Dec. 17 execution. Humphreys, 52, had argued that he should be protected by a pandemic-era agreement that paused executions under certain conditions. The judge rejected that claim, finding he was “expressly excluded from its terms.”
Humphreys also submitted his last meal request: barbecue beef brisket, pork ribs, a bacon double cheeseburger, french fries, cole slaw, cornbread, buffalo wings, a meat lovers pan pizza, vanilla ice cream and two lemon-lime sodas.
Georgia’s Board of Pardons and Paroles is scheduled to hold a clemency hearing on Dec. 16.
COBB COUNTY, Ga. – A Cobb County man sentenced to death for killing two real estate agents in a Powder Springs model home more than two decades ago is scheduled to be executed next month, court officials announced.
Cobb County Superior Court has ordered the execution of Stacey Ian Humphreys, 52, who was convicted in 2007 of murdering Cynthia “Cyndi” Williams, 33, and Lori Brown, 21, on Nov. 3, 2003. Humphreys is scheduled to die by lethal injection on Dec. 17 at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson. If carried out, it would be the state’s 55th execution by lethal injection.
The case drew widespread attention for its brutality. Investigators found Williams and Brown—friends and coworkers—shot to death inside a sales office at a home construction site in what had been a quiet west Cobb subdivision.
Williams was discovered nude except for stockings. She had been strangled with her own underwear and then shot in the head. Brown, who arrived moments later, was also shot once in the head.
“It was a brutal scene … almost inhumane,” said retired Cobb County police Sgt. Eddie Herman, who led the investigation.
Detectives determined the women had been targeted. Phone records showed two calls to banks from the sales office around the time of the killings, and investigators later found that both victims’ bank cards had been used at ATMs. The killer, captured on surveillance video, was seen driving a black Dodge Durango.
Witnesses in the area described a large white man in a black Durango who had come into a nearby real estate office asking about Williams and Brown. A composite sketch released to the public brought in a tip identifying Humphreys, a parolee and construction worker who had previously worked in the subdivision and matched the vehicle description.
Investigators learned Humphreys lived less than a mile from the crime scene and was suspected of stealing a coworker’s 9mm Ruger pistol—the same caliber used in the murders.
When officers attempted to bring him in for questioning, Humphreys fled, triggering a multistate manhunt. He was arrested after a 35-minute high-speed chase near Milwaukee, where authorities recovered the stolen 9mm handgun inside his Jeep Grand Cherokee. DNA on the weapon later matched one of the victims.
Prosecutors said Humphreys forced each woman to provide her bank PIN before killing her. A motive was never fully determined.
Humphreys was charged with two counts each of malice murder, felony murder and armed robbery. He was convicted on all charges in October 2007 and sentenced to death.
He remains on Georgia’s death row and continues to deny memory of the killings, telling investigators he could not recall what happened inside the model home.