A Cobb County Sheriff’s deputy leads Stacey Humphreys to a court appearance on Nov. 13, 2003. After more than two months of deliberation, a Fulton County judge has ruled the state parole board is eligible to hear a Cobb death row inmate’s plea for clemency without all five parole board members present. In a final ruling Monday, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney determined that the board can decide on the clemency ruling for convicted murderer Stacey Humphreys, so long as board member Kimberly McCoy recuses herself from the hearing due to her involvement with the case as an advocate for the families of Humphreys’ victims. Humphreys, born in 1973, was convicted and sentenced to death for the 2003 double murders of Lori Brown and Cynthia Williams, two west Cobb residents and real estate agents. During his 2007 trial, McCoy was director of the Cobb County District Attorney’s Office Victim Witness Unit, where she “formed a very close bond with both (victims’) families,” McBurney wrote in his ruling. It is due to this close bond that McCoy “cannot be viewed as impartial” in Humphreys’ case and must be removed from the hearing. “(Humphreys) enjoys a clear legal right purs
