Shawn Paul Humphries (October 19, 1971 – December 2, 2005) was a murderer executed by the U.S. state of South Carolina.
Humphries was pronounced dead at 6:18 p.m. EST on December 2, 2005, by lethal injection at the Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia.
His father was extremely abusive towards Humphries and introduced him to alcohol, drugs, and paint fumes when he was between the ages of six and ten.
Humphries and his friend Eddie Blackwell had been driving around drinking beer on the night of January 1, 1994, and decided to rob the Max-Saver convenience store.
He was convicted on August 5, 1994, of murder, attempted robbery, possession of a firearm during the commission of a violent crime, and criminal conspiracy.
During his closing statement, the prosecutor compared the lives of Smith and Humphries during a year, suggesting, in the words of Judge Wilkinson of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, that "his life is of less worth than that of someone else."
Wilkinson wrote in his dissenting opinion that the fact that Humphries's lawyer did not object to these statements is the hallmark of ineffective counsel.
The one-and-a-half-page handwritten statement said in part:[This quote needs a citation] […]I hope that my execution brings the Smith family some peace.