A state court has declined to halt the execution of Georgia death row inmate Warren Lee Hill who is set to die Monday.
A Butts County Superior Court judge Thursday denied requests filed by Warren Lee Hill’s lawyer. Lawyer Brian Kammer argued Hill is mentally disabled and shouldn’t be executed. Similar requests are pending at the U.S. Supreme Court.
The court said Hill has proven an IQ of 70 beyond a reasonable doubt, and he meets the overall criteria for being mentally disabled by a preponderance of the evidence.
But Georgia law requires death row inmates to prove beyond a reasonable doubt they are mentally disabled to avoid execution, and the court said Hill failed to do that.
The board announced its decision Monday after hearing arguments Friday in the case of Warren Lee Hill, who was convicted in 1991 and sentenced to death for killing a fellow inmate while serving a life sentence for his girlfriend’s slaying.
His lawyer Brian Kammer has argued that the 52-year-old Hill is mentally disabled and therefore shouldn’t be executed. Kammer said he’s “horrified and outraged” by the board’s decision.
“This shameful decision violates Georgia’s and our nation’s moral values and renders meaningless state and federal constitutional protections against wrongful execution of persons with mental retardation,” he said.
Kammer had asked the board to commute Hill’s sentence to life in prison without parole or to grant him a 90-day stay of execution to give the U.S. Supreme Court time to consider the case. A petition to have Hill’s case heard by the U.S. Supreme Court was denied last month, but Kammer has filed a new request with the high court. Kammer said he filed a motion Monday with the U.S. Supreme Court asking for a delay until that court has had a chance to review his request for a rehearing.
Hill and Joseph Handspike were both serving sentences for murder at the Lee Correctional Institution in 1990 when Hill beat Handspike to death. Hill was serving a life sentence at the time for the 1986 slaying of his 18-year-old girlfriend, who was shot 11 times.
Hill was serving a life sentence when he was convicted in the 1990 death of a fellow inmate
Via AJC.com
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