ATLANTA (AP) — Lawyers for a man set to be put to death next week in Georgia argue that an agreement entered into by the state and death penalty defense attorneys during the COVID-19 pandemic should shield their client from execution for the time being.

A federal judge is set to hear arguments Wednesday in a lawsuit filed by lawyers for Stacey Humphreys, who is scheduled to die on Dec. 17. Humphreys, 52, was convicted of malice murder in the 2003 killings of 33-year-old Cyndi Williams and 21-year-old Lori Brown at the real estate office where they worked in a suburb of Atlanta.

After Georgia put executions on hold during the pandemic, the state attorney general’s office entered into an agreement with lawyers for people on death row to set the terms under which they could resume. The

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