ATLANTA — The 2025 Georgia Legislative Session has had a variety of bills, some aimed at lighter fare like making corn bread the official state bread, and others on the more serious side, such as making sure all Georgia workers earn at least the minimum wage.
Among Tuesday’s House Floor votes, state lawmakers will take steps to approve, or reject, a ban on executing those with intellectual disabilities that are serving sentences on death row.
As of Dec. 31, 2024, there were 34 inmates on Georgia’s death row. All but one are men.
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The most recent execution in Georgia was in March 2024, when the state put Willie James Pye, 59, to death. His execution was the first since 2020.
Channel 2 Action News previously reported that Pye’s public defenders said he was intellectually disabled and had an IQ of just 68. His defenders argued that Pye also grew up poor and in a violent, chaotic family environment and petitioned the state for clemency.
Now, House Bill 123 is making its way through the legislative process. If it passes its floor vote in the Georgia House of Representatives, it would move to the Senate for approval or rejection.
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If passed, HB 123 would make it so that for defendants facing the death penalty for a capital offense, the accused may file a pretrial notice about claiming intellectual disability.
This would prompt a pretrial hearing about the defendant’s intellectual ability or disability and can be conducted upon a motion of the defendant, at the court’s decision or at the joint consent of both the defendant and the prosecution.
The court would determine if the accused Georgian has an intellectual disability after the hearing, with the judge serving as the finder of fact, according to the bill’s text.
However, the defense would have the burden of producing evidence and to persuade the court that they are intellectually disabled. If the pretrial hearing does not find them to have an intellectual disability, the legislation says they could attempt a second petition later on during the legal process.
If a Georgian accused of capital offenses and facing the death penalty is found intellectually disabled, the court would prevent prosecutors from seeking the death penalty. Juries would also be instructed by the court to keep the defendants’ intellectual disability statuses in consideration when deciding guilt during a trial.
Should HB 123 pass, any death penalty sought after July 1 would include instructions for juries involving intellectual disabilities of defendants and their potential convictions. If a jury does not find the defendant has an intellectual disability, capital sentencing can go ahead unchanged.
In the event that a defendant successfully proves intellectual disability but accepts a plea deal, the death penalty would be off the table as a sentence, putting the accused instead into a life sentence.
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