ATLANTA — The unavailability of the COVID-19 vaccine for infants is delaying executions for certain prisoners on Georgia’s death row. A ruling from Fulton County Superior Court Judge Shukura Ingram has paused the execution process for a group of prisoners covered by a 2021 agreement between the state and defense attorneys.
The agreement, set during the COVID-19 pandemic, laid out three conditions that must be met before executions could resume: the expiration of Georgia’s COVID-19 judicial emergency, the return of normal visitation at state prisons, and the availability of the COVID-19 vaccine to all members of the public.
While the state argues the conditions have been fulfilled, defense attorneys claim that the vaccine is still not available to infants under 6 months old, and prison visitation has not returned to normal. Judge Ingram ruled that the vaccination condition has not been met, and pursuing an execution warrant would breach the agreement.
The state had hoped to alter the terms, suggesting the condition should apply once most people have access to the vaccine, rather than all. Ingram rejected this argument, stating that the agreement was clear and binding. “Courts cannot rewrite contracts to relieve a party of their regrets,” she wrote.
Ingram’s decision focused on the vaccination issue, with visitation still to be addressed separately. She acknowledged that clinical trials for infants under 6 months have been approved, showing that the vaccine could eventually be available for that age group.
The state’s attorney general’s office plans to appeal the ruling.
The agreement applies to fewer than 10 of the 34 prisoners on death row in Georgia. It was made after a judicial task force instructed the state and defense attorneys to work out terms for resuming executions during the pandemic. The legal dispute arose when the state set an execution date for Virgil Delano Presnell Jr. in May 2022, which led to the lawsuit and Judge Ingram’s ruling.
While the agreement holds for those covered, other death row inmates have become eligible for execution. The state executed Willie James Pye in March 2024, as he was not included in the agreement.
Related topics:
