The second execution warrant for Stacey Humphreys, the death row inmate convicted of killing two west Cobb real estate agents in 2003, expired Wednesday, Sept. 23, without being carried out.

It is the second time a warrant has lapsed. The first expired on Christmas Eve 2025 after the Board of Pardons and Paroles issued a delay. This time, a stay from Cobb Superior Court Judge Tyler Browning kept the execution from proceeding.

The warrant, filed in late August, gave the Georgia Department of Corrections a window through noon Sept. 23 to execute Humphreys, the Marietta Daily Journal reported. The state had scheduled the execution for 7 p.m. Sept. 16.

Browning issued a stay on Sept. 15, hours after the Board of Pardons and Paroles denied Humphreys' clemency application. The judge ruled Humphreys is eligible for a hearing under the Georgia Survivor Justice Act (SJA), a 2025 law that allows survivors of abuse to present evidence of past abuse as a defense at trial.

Humphreys' attorneys argued in Cobb Superior Court on Sept. 15 that severe childhood abuse was a "significant contributing factor" to his crimes, the Georgia Recorder reported. The state appealed Browning's stay to the Georgia Supreme Court on Sept. 17. The high court upheld the stay and scheduled oral arguments for Dec. 8 to decide whether Humphreys should receive a full hearing under the SJA.

The Georgia Supreme Court called the law's application an issue of "important and novel questions," according to East Cobb News. Under the law, a death sentence could be reduced to 10 to 30 years if a court finds childhood abuse significantly contributed to the crime.

The stay drew opposing reactions. Senior Assistant Attorney General Sabrina Graham argued in court on Sept. 15 that the law was meant for people who retaliated against their own abusers, not for someone claiming abuse from decades earlier led to unrelated crimes.

Linda Brown, mother of victim Lori Brown, told Fox 5 Atlanta on Sept. 17 that she was furious about the delay. "His time is up, and the state should do what they promised they were going to do," she said.

Vanessa Griddine-Jones, executive director of Georgians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, took a different view. Speaking to WABE on Sept. 16 after delivering petitions with more than 4,000 signatures to the parole board, Griddine-Jones said: "This is a case of a fallible government system, and you can't reverse this decision after he's been executed."

Humphreys was convicted in 2007 of the murders of Cyndi Williams, 33, of Acworth, and Lori Brown, 21, of Powder Springs. Prosecutors said he forced the women at gunpoint inside a model home off Antioch Road near Vaughan Elementary School in west Cobb on Nov. 3, 2003, then shot both in the back of the head. He withdrew more than $3,000 from their bank accounts before fleeing to Wisconsin, where he was arrested after a high-speed chase.

He was on parole at the time. Georgia has not executed anyone in more than two years; the most recent execution was Willie James Pye in March 2024, according to the Department of Corrections. The Dec. 8 oral arguments before the Georgia Supreme Court will determine what happens next.