ATLANTA (AP) - The execution of a Georgia man whose attorneys claim he is mentally disabled remained on hold Thursday after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to lift a stay.
Less than an hour before Warren Lee Hill was set to die Tuesday, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals stepped in and temporarily stopped the execution, saying it wanted more time to look at statements from doctors who now believe Hill is mentally disabled. The three doctors testified in 2000 that Hill was not mentally disabled.
In a 2-1 decision, the 11th Circuit judges said they were temporarily halting the execution to give Hill a chance to argue a federal court should reconsider his case.
The state of Georgia said the doctors' new statements were not credible and asked the U.S. Supreme Court to lift the stay. The government also said Hill was procedurally barred from asking a federal court to reconsider his case.
Hill was sentenced to die for the 1990 beating death of fellow inmate Joseph Handspike. Authorities said he used a board studded with nails to bludgeon Handspike while he slept. At the time, Hill was already serving a life sentence for murder in the 1986 slaying of his girlfriend, Myra Wright, who had been shot 11 times.
Hill's lawyers have long argued that he should not be executed because he is mentally disabled. The state maintains that the defense failed to meet its burden of proving beyond a reasonable doubt that Hill is mentally disabled.
Georgia passed a law in 1988 prohibiting the execution of mentally disabled death row inmates, and the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2002 that the execution of mentally disabled offenders was unconstitutional. But Georgia also has the strictest-in-the-nation standard for death row inmates seeking to avoid execution, requiring them to prove their mental disability beyond a reasonable doubt.
Most states that impose the death penalty have a lower threshold, while some don't set standards at all.
Defense lawyer Brian Kammer said Hill will now get a chance over the next month to argue his claim "given the newly available evidence which establishes consensus among every doctor who has evaluated Mr. Hill that he is mentally retarded."
In new statements released by Hill's lawyers last week, the doctors wrote they were rushed in their evaluation at the time, they had acquired additional experience and there had been scientific developments in the intervening 12 years.
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Torin Togut
Mr. Hill's case brings to light why the death penalty can be arbitrary, capricious and unjust. Years ago, the experts thought that Mr. Hill did not have an intellectual disability. Now, after further advance research and training, the experts opine that Mr. Hill has an intellectual disability.
Georgia was the first state to enact a law that prohibits the execution of an individual with mental disabilities. Yet it is the only state that requires a defendant to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he has an intellectual disability. Except in the most severe cases, it is unlikely that any defendant with a mild intellectual disability can prove this beyond a reasonable doubt. Georgia can save Mr. Hill's life on one hand, and then quickly take it away with the other hand. Georgia can execute Mr. Hill even though he is now considered by experts to be intellectually disabled. It is quite troubling that Mr. Hill's attorneys may not be able to meet this heavy burden of proof.
Brian Kammer has been an unyeilding and tireless defender of Mr. Hill. His representation of Mr. Hill is exemplary and hopefully will soon result in saving Mr. Hill's life from an unwarranted execution.
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