Stacey Ian Humphreys (born May 8, 1973) is an American convicted double murderer sentenced to death in the U.S. state of Georgia. On November 3, 2003, Humphreys, who was on parole for a 1993 felony theft conviction, attacked 33-year-old Cyndi Williams and 21-year-old Lori Brown at a business in Powder Springs, Georgia, forcing them to undress before he shot them. Humphreys was found guilty of malice murder on both counts and sentenced to death in 2007.
Background Humphreys's criminal history began in October 1993, when he pleaded guilty to burglary, car theft, and forgery, connected to his breaking into a car and stealing a different car; he received a 10-year prison sentence for those crimes and was ordered to serve three years in custody, with the other seven to be served on supervised probation. In March 1997, Humphreys violated probation by impersonating a police officer at a mall in Kennesaw, Georgia, leading to the revocation of his parole and his return to prison to serve the rest of his sentence. In 1998, the Georgia Pardon and Parole Board voted for Humphreys to be released in October 2002, fifteen months before the end of his sentence, on conditional release.
Upon his scheduled release in October 2002, Humphreys moved in with his grandmother; his parole was scheduled to end in January 2004. The state Board of Pardons and Paroles spokesperson, Heather Hedrick, stated that Humphreys was classed as "a property crime offender with no history of any sort of assault or violence in his past at all".Part 1: Part 2:
During his trial in 2007, Humphreys's defense attorneys stated that Humphreys had survived child abuse. During the sentencing phase of his death penalty trial, Humphreys's sister testified that their father used to beat Humphreys with his fists and would hit her with belts and sticks. At the age of 3, Humphreys experienced a skull fracture; throughout his childhood, he was observed to have cigarette burns on his body.
A clinical psychologist who testified to Humphreys's mental state during the sentencing phase of his trial in September 2007 also stated that Humphreys's father would sit atop his body and beat him in the head as a child, although Humphreys had no memory of those attacks. The same psychologist said he believed Humphreys exhibited symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), autism, and a dissociative disorder with "lapses of awareness", the latter exemplified by a time Humphreys drove "all the way to New Mexico" without any awareness of what he was doing; a different psychologist supported the first psychologist's findings of PTSD.
Murders On November 3, 2003, Humphreys committed the murders of two real estate agents in Powder Springs, Georgia. Humphreys, who was released 13 months prior on parole for a 1993 felony theft conviction, walked into a home construction company's sales office while armed with a gun. At that time, two real estate agents, 33-year-old Cynthia "Cyndi" Williams and 21-year-old Lori Brown, were working in the office. Humphreys confronted the women at gunpoint, forcing them to give up the access codes of their bank cards and to undress. Humphreys would first choke Williams with her underwear tied around her neck, before he made her lie down on her hands and knees, and he shot her to death, firing one shot each to her head and back.Humphreys v. State , Supreme Court of Georgia (United States).
After murdering Williams, Humphreys also killed Brown, forcing her to kneel with her head facing the floor before he shot her execution-style. After the fatal shootings, Humphreys stole the women's driver's licenses and ATM and credit cards, and he also withdrew more than $3,000 from their accounts. After Humphreys left the office at around 1:30 pm, a builder operating a nearby office found the bodies and called the police. An autopsy report showed that one of the bullets went through Williams's lung and heart from her back, while another had penetrated her head. Brown died from a single gunshot wound to her head, and she also had some hemorrhaging in her throat, suggesting she was likely choked or held in a headlock before the shooting.
Arrest and murder charges Humphreys was later identified as a suspect behind the murders, and he was placed on the wanted list, after a co-worker confirmed that the description of the suspect and his vehicle matched those of Humphreys and his vehicle. Police managed to schedule a meeting between Humphreys and his parole officer on the morning of November 7, 2003; however, Humphreys did not attend the meeting and went into hiding from the authorities.
On November 8, 2003, five days after the murders, Humphreys was arrested in Hartford, Wisconsin, where he was pursued by police after deputies recognized him and his vehicle which matched the description provided by Georgia state authorities.
Through their investigation, police managed to match the 9 mm bullets found on the women to a Ruger handgun that they recovered from Humphreys's rented Jeep. The police also found bloodstains on Humphreys's gun and truck, and forensic tests matched the blood on the gun to Williams' DNA, and Brown's DNA was matched to the blood on the truck.
Trial and sentencing By April 2004, the prosecution intended to seek the death penalty for Stacey Humphreys. Before the trial was to begin, the trial venue was changed from Cobb County to Glynn County due to pretrial publicity.
On September 18, 2007, the trial of Humphreys began before a Glynn County jury. During the trial, the prosecution (led by Cobb County Assistant District Attorney Marc Cella) said that robbery was the motive for the murders, given that Humphreys confessed to spending $565 of the victims' money on his Dodge Durango, and at the time of his arrest, the police found about $800 in cash in Humphreys's possession. Jimmy Berry, Humphreys's lawyer, conceded that his client indeed confessed to the murders, but he stated that Humphreys could not remember his whereabouts or actions on the date of the double murder, saying that his client suffered from bouts of memory lapses.
On September 26, 2007, the jury found Humphreys guilty of murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, kidnapping, and armed robbery. Shortly after the verdict, the jury began to deliberate on whether to sentence Humphreys to life in prison without the possibility of parole or the death penalty. Under Georgia state law, offenders could only receive a death sentence by unanimous vote; a split vote would result in life imprisonment.
The prosecution sought the death penalty, stating that Humphreys had committed the murders to get money and resolve his car payment, while the defense asked for mercy, stating that Humphreys was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome and planned to use the defense of diminished responsibility to argue against the death sentence. During the sentencing hearing, the friends and family members of the victims were allowed to testify in court. Out of all these witnesses, Williams's husband told the jurors that he was still "functionally depressed" by the murder of his wife, and it affected him so much that he considered resigning from his job and moving. In general, the victims' friends and families spoke about their grief over losing Williams and Brown and the murders' impacts on their respective lives.
On September 30, 2007, the jury returned a verdict, unanimously recommending the death penalty for Humphreys, and he was thus sentenced to death. According to Liliana Segura of The Intercept, originally, eleven of the jurors had voted for life without parole with only one juror, Linda Chancey, supporting the death penalty. However, after additional deliberation, the jury voted unanimously in favor of death. Following the trial, Humphreys's legal team interviewed the foreperson who later testified in court that Chancey had announced her intentions prior to Humphrey's conviction. The foreperson testified that Chancey had edited a note to the judge, about how they were unable to come to a unanimous vote, to include the word "currently," leading to an order to continue deliberations. During the continued deliberation, Chauncey became "hostile," throwing pictures of the victims at the other jurors and revealing that during voir dire she had not disclosed her past as an attempted armed robbery victim. Ultimately, due to unclear instructions from the judge, and false impressions, the jury capitulated and voted unanimously for the death penalty.
After the verdict was passed, Cobb County District Attorney Pat Head expressed that the death penalty was an appropriate punishment for Humphreys due to the brutality of the killings, and stated that Humphreys "took away all their humanity".
Humphreys was reportedly expressionless and silent when the death sentence was meted out, and in response, the families of Brown and Williams cried and embraced quietly at the time of the ruling, and Brown's father stated that he agreed with the death sentence, stating a terrible crime should end with a harsh penalty. Williams's sister stated she received some relief with the jury's verdict, even though the grief of their family would not disappear.
On October 8, 2007, Humphreys filed a motion for a new trial which the trial court denied on February 19, 2009.
Appeals The Georgia Supreme Court affirmed Humphreys’ convictions and death sentences on March 15, 2010. Humphreys filed a petition for writ of certiorari in the United States Supreme Court, which was denied on November 15, 2010.
In 2011, Humphreys filed an application for writ of habeas corpus in the Superior Court of Butts County. It was denied on March 10, 2016. The decision was appealed to the Georgia Supreme Court in the form of an application for certificate of probable cause. The application to appeal was denied on August 18, 2017. Humphreys’ petition for writ of certiorari was denied by the United States Supreme Court on April 16, 2018. Humphreys v. Sellers, 584 U.S. 935 (2018).
On May 24, 2018, Humphreys filed a writ of habeas corpus in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia which was denied by the court on September 16, 2020. On February 4, 2021, Humphreys appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. On June 11, 2024, the Eleventh Circuit affirmed the lower court’s decision.Humphreys v. Warden , 11th Circuit Court of Appeals (United States).
On October 14, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court denied Humphreys's final appeal.Humphreys v. Emmons , U.S. Supreme Court (United States).
Earlier in his appeals, Humphreys's counsel submitted that "extreme juror misconduct" had breached their client's right to an impartial jury and trial. Prior to Humphreys's sentencing, one of the female jurors insisted on imposing the death penalty even though the other 11 jurors were in favor of life imprisonment without parole. The one holdout juror had communicated to the court during jury selection that an unnamed escaped convict had committed armed robbery and attempted rape against her but that she had been able to escape the attack before he fully entered her home and that, despite her traumatic experience, she would be able to adjudge Humphreys's case fairly. However, during Humphreys's sentencing phase, she revealed to the jurors that the escaped convict had in actuality removed her clothes and assaulted her in her bed, and she communicated to her fellow jurors that she would not consider a life sentence for Humphreys and "had her mind made up" with regards to Humphreys receiving a death sentence.