Sept. 16, 2026
Two Executions Scheduled For Tonight, But Only One Of Them May Happen
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RSS Feed Both Texas and Georgia have scheduled executions for this evening, but late Tuesday, a Georgia judge put a temporary stay on the execution of 53-year-old Stacey Humphries. The judge granting Humphries a hearing based on a new law that allows inmates convicted of capital offenses to be resentenced if they suffered severe childhood abuse. Georgia prosecutors have filed an expedited appeal and state officials say they are keeping the execution plan in place for now. In Texas, 40-year-old LeJames Norman will be put to death for his role in a horrific 2015 triple homicide. His cohort, is scheduled to die for the same crime next week.
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00:00:02
Speaker 1: Hey there folks, it is Wednesday, September 16th, and two executions are scheduled in the U.S. for tonight. One for tomorrow, another one next week, and then six days after that, another one, and then another one the next day. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ, What is Robes? Yes, a busy day on death row today, but this is going to be a busy next couple of weeks as we finish up September, but... This is something we rarely see. We'll get into more details of it. But right now, Robes, as we sit here and record this on this Wednesday, there's an execution tonight in Georgia that's scheduled but paused for now.
00:00:42
Speaker 2: It may or may not happen, and it's going to be determined throughout the day today because the state of Georgia wants to, and they said they are keeping the execution scheduled while the courts figure out whether or not They can appeal a decision about a new law in Georgia that says they need to consider this inmate's history of violence as a child.
00:01:07
Speaker 1: So we will get into that. But it is robed. We cover a lot of executions because there are a lot of executions. But robed is fairly rare to get. I sit up like, wait a minute. Somebody got to stay? This is rare to see this happen.
00:01:22
Speaker 2: It certainly makes headlines because, yes, it doesn't happen very often. And look, his clemency, the clemency board, they had already ruled, nope, you are going through. So this was kind of a last-ditch effort that at least temporarily has worked. We shall see as the hours of the day tick on what may end up happening.
00:01:40
Speaker 1: Isn't that great? We rarely see them work, but we see everybody at the end try.
00:01:45
Speaker 2: Oh, they'll throw everything in. at a judge to try and find some way in. And yes, every now and then they find an opening.
00:01:54
Speaker 1: Guess that's why you keep fighting, Roach. You never know what might happen. But this evening in Texas, let's start here. Texas is going to execute, his name is LeJames Norman, but he's being executed this week. And the person he is accused, not accused, but convicted of committing the crime with, It's going to be executed next week. We'll get more into that in just a moment. But he is 40 years old. Robes, I see some of this crime was in 2015. Robes, he was 19 at the time that he committed this crime. But as such, we see a lot of the cases, babe. That's a pretty young man, 40 years old. But he is convicted of a triple murder. And, Robes, some of the details of this one are pretty awful, that nobody was supposed to be killed and end up with three people dead.
00:02:40
Speaker 2: Yeah, from what came out in court and what police have said that Norman and his partner, they thought there was cocaine at this house in a little tiny town of Edna, about 100 miles southwest of Houston. And they were just trying to get some drugs. Unfortunately, I say unfortunately, they never found the drugs. That's a weird thing to say. But I say that because Instead, they found three people at home that I guess they weren't expecting to be home.
00:03:09
Speaker 1: Well, they go in and they had the intention of robbing this 38-year-old guy. His name is Celso Lopez. He was actually a neighbor of theirs. So they go in, ransacking the place, looking around. They thought there would be drugs there. They found nothing. They're holding Lopez at gunpoint. Now, Norman, as they didn't find anything, Robes, as he tells it, shoots Lopez but didn't mean to. Didn't actually mean to kill him but did kill him. Now, here is where a robbery goes to a triple murder. Because as they're there at the house and after he shoots Lopez, Lopez's roommates, Robes, they walk in on the scene. And the roommates are just 18 and 24 years old. And the 18-year-old is a young lady.
00:03:53
Speaker 2: And this is just awful because I don't understand how he even says that Lopez, he accidentally shot him because according to the police, he was shot four times.
00:04:04
Speaker 1: His partner, Robes, and this is another detail of this one, after they shot them initially, went back and shot them several more times just to make sure they were dead. But yes, the details about Tiffany, Robes, is that he actually made her get on her knees and shot her in the head, execution style. 18-year-old young lady. And the guy she was dating was also a roommate there, Sam Roberts, 24 years old. He said he actually attempted to. to get away, tried to flee, but they caught him and both shot him. That is so disturbing. How do you go from, 21 years ago, two guys who just wanted to score some cocaine... Now on death row and three people are dead.
00:04:46
Speaker 2: Yes, and horrifically so. Yes, because Tiffany, she was shot twice in the head. Roberts was shot five times to the chest, neck, and head. I mean, they wanted, like as you said, they wanted to make sure they were dead. They had no witnesses. I guess that was the point.
00:05:05
Speaker 1: Norm actually wasn't arrested for five months later. He was trying. They caught him when he was trying to get back into the U.S. from Mexico.
00:05:12
Speaker 2: Yeah. He managed to actually escape, cross the border, and then thought, let me go back. And that's how they got him.
00:05:21
Speaker 1: Got caught coming back into the United States. He ended up, though, he pled guilty. Now, you hear he pled guilty, that a guilty plea is just going to in some way save him from the death penalty. No, that wasn't a part of the deal. pled guilty, still, it was up to the jury to decide his fate. You're shaking your head like that's wild.
00:05:40
Speaker 2: I mean, normally, if you choose to plead guilty, you get something from the prosecution. And if anything, taking the death penalty off the tech table in a state like Texas, this isn't like California, this isn't like some of even New York, where you just don't see executions take place. You are in the state of Texas. You're going to plead guilty. I would think that would be the one stipulation. Please, I don't want the death penalty.
00:06:06
Speaker 1: You should get something for it. But sure enough, they sent him to the death penalty. So tonight, Rose, this is not one that is being questioned. This is not one where folks need to check some last minute evidence or some DNA, or it's not one of those where people are advocating for him to not be killed because of anything other than they're against the death penalty. Uh, but Robes, this is Texas. Texas is now with this one. This will be their fifth execution of the year. Still well behind Florida, which has 14 executions so far this year. So they're not going to be doing any catch up, catching up. Now we mentioned, uh, his partner, Kershawn Ramey was there with them. Uh, I think his trial was before Norman's, but he got the exact same I.
00:06:57
Speaker 2: Mean, we've seen in plenty of other cases where you'll have cohorts, and one person gets the death penalty, one person gets life in prison. This is one of... I guess maybe Texas could be part of it, but it is interesting that they both ended up getting the same sentence, and the fact that they've scheduled these two one week apart, is that just coincidence, or is this just how things worked out? I would imagine for the family members of those victims, this is probably... I would imagine very satisfying to be able to have basic full closure of this case within a week of one another that so many families are put through so many of these appeals. And now that you've got two folks who are involved in literally pulling the trigger to know that both of them, their sentences have been completed within a week of one another has to give them some sense of peace.
00:07:50
Speaker 1: I didn't think about that, but we speak all the time about families waiting 20, 30, 40 years to get resolution or to see justice, if you will, carried out. And you're right, babe. Executing one of them is not complete justice yet. I didn't see, but I am sure they did this intentionally. Put them back to back like that.
00:08:11
Speaker 2: And by the way, you talked about different, more executions coming down the path, at least for the state of Texas. So Ramey's execution today, sorry, is next week. Norman's is today. Then three more executions for the state of Texas, by the way, are scheduled through the rest of this year. And if they are all carried out, this would be the most executions in Texas in a single year this decade. also potentially setting a record for itself, at least for the decade. Not comparable to Florida as of yet, but it is of note that Texas is ramping up executions this year.
00:08:47
Speaker 1: Isn't it crazy that's the state we're so used to carrying out execution after execution? Well behind. Only other state that has multiple right now, Robes, is Oklahoma in the country. And just Arizona has one, Tennessee has one, and Alabama has one. I was thrown off by the shape of the state for a second. I paused. Didn't recognize the state of Alabama. Really? Yeah. For just a second. I know you know it. Too well. Stay with us, folks. There is one execution scheduled for tonight. There is a second one scheduled but on hold. We'll tell you what's going on in the state of Georgia. There is a stay of execution, but that does not mean there won't be an execution there tonight.
00:09:40
Speaker 2: Welcome back, everyone, to Amy and TJ. It is potentially going to be a very busy day in America's death row chambers, specifically in Texas. And then we'll see about Georgia because there is a scheduled execution that remains on the books for 7 p.m. Eastern tonight for Stacey Humphreys. How late yesterday, a judge granted a stay of execution.
00:10:06
Speaker 1: Let us explain. Yes, a stay of execution. Last minute, of course, everybody's in there making some argument for why this guy shouldn't be killed. His attorneys in particular, we see this all the time. A judge granted them a hearing on the Survivor Justice Act. That is what this is based on. And Robes, you saw what year? How recently was this passed? I have to figure.
00:10:31
Speaker 2: Out because it is a new law in Georgia. Let me give you the exact year.
00:10:36
Speaker 1: Fairly new. But what this thing does, it allows for people convicted of capital offenses to be resentenced if convicted. They can show that they suffered severe childhood abuse and trauma, which they say Stacey Humphreys did experience. So they've stayed the execution. It's still scheduled for tonight. However, the prosecution is now given enough time to respond to what the defense is saying. So right now, the judge is essentially allowing the prosecution to respond to this. And then the court needs to make some kind of a ruling because the execution still is scheduled.
00:11:16
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I got a little information on the Georgia Survivor Justice Act. It was passed in April of 2025, but it became effective in July 1st of 2025. So this has only been in effect for a year. And the whole point is that judges and prosecutors re-examine or reduce sentences, and in this case, they would want them to take the death penalty off the case, for anyone whose crimes are tied to to past abuse, and it gives domestic violence survivors better opportunities to claim self-defense. So that's kind of why, like the main purpose of it, and that does make sense. If you're, say, you're a domestic violence survivor and you fought back, or you killed someone based on prior abuse, you can understand maybe, or you give some sort of weight to the reason why, and you can reduce sentences because of it. Does this case seem to rise to that level?
00:12:14
Speaker 1: Well, so I don't know what his background and what his prior abuse or childhood abuse could have been that led him to hold two women hostage in a model home to beat them, to take their PIN numbers, and to kill those two women. Now, whatever. Criminal psychologists will tell me that his background matters in that, but he's being granted a hearing so they can work out and hear whether or not he has this trauma.
00:12:46
Speaker 2: My goodness, because his lawyers are also arguing that he should be resentenced because his death sentence was tainted by a biased juror who lied during jury selection and bullied other jurors into voting for a death sentence. That was their other big argument. But look, I don't know exactly the application of this new law, but it doesn't seem like the reason why it was passed, the intention behind it, because you have to tie the abuse... to the crime. These two women, these two real estate agents, didn't obviously do anything to him. They were innocent. So I'm not really sure how they would be able to tie the abuse to the homicides.
00:13:31
Speaker 1: Well, the judge right now at least says he has a right to be heard on that point. So folks, we're keeping an eye on those death chambers today. One might get used and one still to be determined. But we will let you know What happens? We appreciate you as always spending a little time with us. I'm TJ on behalf of my dear Amy Robach. We'll talk soon.
Speaker 1: Hey there folks, it is Wednesday, September 16th, and two executions are scheduled in the U.S. for tonight. One for tomorrow, another one next week, and then six days after that, another one, and then another one the next day. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ, What is Robes? Yes, a busy day on death row today, but this is going to be a busy next couple of weeks as we finish up September, but... This is something we rarely see. We'll get into more details of it. But right now, Robes, as we sit here and record this on this Wednesday, there's an execution tonight in Georgia that's scheduled but paused for now.
00:00:42
Speaker 2: It may or may not happen, and it's going to be determined throughout the day today because the state of Georgia wants to, and they said they are keeping the execution scheduled while the courts figure out whether or not They can appeal a decision about a new law in Georgia that says they need to consider this inmate's history of violence as a child.
00:01:07
Speaker 1: So we will get into that. But it is robed. We cover a lot of executions because there are a lot of executions. But robed is fairly rare to get. I sit up like, wait a minute. Somebody got to stay? This is rare to see this happen.
00:01:22
Speaker 2: It certainly makes headlines because, yes, it doesn't happen very often. And look, his clemency, the clemency board, they had already ruled, nope, you are going through. So this was kind of a last-ditch effort that at least temporarily has worked. We shall see as the hours of the day tick on what may end up happening.
00:01:40
Speaker 1: Isn't that great? We rarely see them work, but we see everybody at the end try.
00:01:45
Speaker 2: Oh, they'll throw everything in. at a judge to try and find some way in. And yes, every now and then they find an opening.
00:01:54
Speaker 1: Guess that's why you keep fighting, Roach. You never know what might happen. But this evening in Texas, let's start here. Texas is going to execute, his name is LeJames Norman, but he's being executed this week. And the person he is accused, not accused, but convicted of committing the crime with, It's going to be executed next week. We'll get more into that in just a moment. But he is 40 years old. Robes, I see some of this crime was in 2015. Robes, he was 19 at the time that he committed this crime. But as such, we see a lot of the cases, babe. That's a pretty young man, 40 years old. But he is convicted of a triple murder. And, Robes, some of the details of this one are pretty awful, that nobody was supposed to be killed and end up with three people dead.
00:02:40
Speaker 2: Yeah, from what came out in court and what police have said that Norman and his partner, they thought there was cocaine at this house in a little tiny town of Edna, about 100 miles southwest of Houston. And they were just trying to get some drugs. Unfortunately, I say unfortunately, they never found the drugs. That's a weird thing to say. But I say that because Instead, they found three people at home that I guess they weren't expecting to be home.
00:03:09
Speaker 1: Well, they go in and they had the intention of robbing this 38-year-old guy. His name is Celso Lopez. He was actually a neighbor of theirs. So they go in, ransacking the place, looking around. They thought there would be drugs there. They found nothing. They're holding Lopez at gunpoint. Now, Norman, as they didn't find anything, Robes, as he tells it, shoots Lopez but didn't mean to. Didn't actually mean to kill him but did kill him. Now, here is where a robbery goes to a triple murder. Because as they're there at the house and after he shoots Lopez, Lopez's roommates, Robes, they walk in on the scene. And the roommates are just 18 and 24 years old. And the 18-year-old is a young lady.
00:03:53
Speaker 2: And this is just awful because I don't understand how he even says that Lopez, he accidentally shot him because according to the police, he was shot four times.
00:04:04
Speaker 1: His partner, Robes, and this is another detail of this one, after they shot them initially, went back and shot them several more times just to make sure they were dead. But yes, the details about Tiffany, Robes, is that he actually made her get on her knees and shot her in the head, execution style. 18-year-old young lady. And the guy she was dating was also a roommate there, Sam Roberts, 24 years old. He said he actually attempted to. to get away, tried to flee, but they caught him and both shot him. That is so disturbing. How do you go from, 21 years ago, two guys who just wanted to score some cocaine... Now on death row and three people are dead.
00:04:46
Speaker 2: Yes, and horrifically so. Yes, because Tiffany, she was shot twice in the head. Roberts was shot five times to the chest, neck, and head. I mean, they wanted, like as you said, they wanted to make sure they were dead. They had no witnesses. I guess that was the point.
00:05:05
Speaker 1: Norm actually wasn't arrested for five months later. He was trying. They caught him when he was trying to get back into the U.S. from Mexico.
00:05:12
Speaker 2: Yeah. He managed to actually escape, cross the border, and then thought, let me go back. And that's how they got him.
00:05:21
Speaker 1: Got caught coming back into the United States. He ended up, though, he pled guilty. Now, you hear he pled guilty, that a guilty plea is just going to in some way save him from the death penalty. No, that wasn't a part of the deal. pled guilty, still, it was up to the jury to decide his fate. You're shaking your head like that's wild.
00:05:40
Speaker 2: I mean, normally, if you choose to plead guilty, you get something from the prosecution. And if anything, taking the death penalty off the tech table in a state like Texas, this isn't like California, this isn't like some of even New York, where you just don't see executions take place. You are in the state of Texas. You're going to plead guilty. I would think that would be the one stipulation. Please, I don't want the death penalty.
00:06:06
Speaker 1: You should get something for it. But sure enough, they sent him to the death penalty. So tonight, Rose, this is not one that is being questioned. This is not one where folks need to check some last minute evidence or some DNA, or it's not one of those where people are advocating for him to not be killed because of anything other than they're against the death penalty. Uh, but Robes, this is Texas. Texas is now with this one. This will be their fifth execution of the year. Still well behind Florida, which has 14 executions so far this year. So they're not going to be doing any catch up, catching up. Now we mentioned, uh, his partner, Kershawn Ramey was there with them. Uh, I think his trial was before Norman's, but he got the exact same I.
00:06:57
Speaker 2: Mean, we've seen in plenty of other cases where you'll have cohorts, and one person gets the death penalty, one person gets life in prison. This is one of... I guess maybe Texas could be part of it, but it is interesting that they both ended up getting the same sentence, and the fact that they've scheduled these two one week apart, is that just coincidence, or is this just how things worked out? I would imagine for the family members of those victims, this is probably... I would imagine very satisfying to be able to have basic full closure of this case within a week of one another that so many families are put through so many of these appeals. And now that you've got two folks who are involved in literally pulling the trigger to know that both of them, their sentences have been completed within a week of one another has to give them some sense of peace.
00:07:50
Speaker 1: I didn't think about that, but we speak all the time about families waiting 20, 30, 40 years to get resolution or to see justice, if you will, carried out. And you're right, babe. Executing one of them is not complete justice yet. I didn't see, but I am sure they did this intentionally. Put them back to back like that.
00:08:11
Speaker 2: And by the way, you talked about different, more executions coming down the path, at least for the state of Texas. So Ramey's execution today, sorry, is next week. Norman's is today. Then three more executions for the state of Texas, by the way, are scheduled through the rest of this year. And if they are all carried out, this would be the most executions in Texas in a single year this decade. also potentially setting a record for itself, at least for the decade. Not comparable to Florida as of yet, but it is of note that Texas is ramping up executions this year.
00:08:47
Speaker 1: Isn't it crazy that's the state we're so used to carrying out execution after execution? Well behind. Only other state that has multiple right now, Robes, is Oklahoma in the country. And just Arizona has one, Tennessee has one, and Alabama has one. I was thrown off by the shape of the state for a second. I paused. Didn't recognize the state of Alabama. Really? Yeah. For just a second. I know you know it. Too well. Stay with us, folks. There is one execution scheduled for tonight. There is a second one scheduled but on hold. We'll tell you what's going on in the state of Georgia. There is a stay of execution, but that does not mean there won't be an execution there tonight.
00:09:40
Speaker 2: Welcome back, everyone, to Amy and TJ. It is potentially going to be a very busy day in America's death row chambers, specifically in Texas. And then we'll see about Georgia because there is a scheduled execution that remains on the books for 7 p.m. Eastern tonight for Stacey Humphreys. How late yesterday, a judge granted a stay of execution.
00:10:06
Speaker 1: Let us explain. Yes, a stay of execution. Last minute, of course, everybody's in there making some argument for why this guy shouldn't be killed. His attorneys in particular, we see this all the time. A judge granted them a hearing on the Survivor Justice Act. That is what this is based on. And Robes, you saw what year? How recently was this passed? I have to figure.
00:10:31
Speaker 2: Out because it is a new law in Georgia. Let me give you the exact year.
00:10:36
Speaker 1: Fairly new. But what this thing does, it allows for people convicted of capital offenses to be resentenced if convicted. They can show that they suffered severe childhood abuse and trauma, which they say Stacey Humphreys did experience. So they've stayed the execution. It's still scheduled for tonight. However, the prosecution is now given enough time to respond to what the defense is saying. So right now, the judge is essentially allowing the prosecution to respond to this. And then the court needs to make some kind of a ruling because the execution still is scheduled.
00:11:16
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I got a little information on the Georgia Survivor Justice Act. It was passed in April of 2025, but it became effective in July 1st of 2025. So this has only been in effect for a year. And the whole point is that judges and prosecutors re-examine or reduce sentences, and in this case, they would want them to take the death penalty off the case, for anyone whose crimes are tied to to past abuse, and it gives domestic violence survivors better opportunities to claim self-defense. So that's kind of why, like the main purpose of it, and that does make sense. If you're, say, you're a domestic violence survivor and you fought back, or you killed someone based on prior abuse, you can understand maybe, or you give some sort of weight to the reason why, and you can reduce sentences because of it. Does this case seem to rise to that level?
00:12:14
Speaker 1: Well, so I don't know what his background and what his prior abuse or childhood abuse could have been that led him to hold two women hostage in a model home to beat them, to take their PIN numbers, and to kill those two women. Now, whatever. Criminal psychologists will tell me that his background matters in that, but he's being granted a hearing so they can work out and hear whether or not he has this trauma.
00:12:46
Speaker 2: My goodness, because his lawyers are also arguing that he should be resentenced because his death sentence was tainted by a biased juror who lied during jury selection and bullied other jurors into voting for a death sentence. That was their other big argument. But look, I don't know exactly the application of this new law, but it doesn't seem like the reason why it was passed, the intention behind it, because you have to tie the abuse... to the crime. These two women, these two real estate agents, didn't obviously do anything to him. They were innocent. So I'm not really sure how they would be able to tie the abuse to the homicides.
00:13:31
Speaker 1: Well, the judge right now at least says he has a right to be heard on that point. So folks, we're keeping an eye on those death chambers today. One might get used and one still to be determined. But we will let you know What happens? We appreciate you as always spending a little time with us. I'm TJ on behalf of my dear Amy Robach. We'll talk soon.