Federal Court: Warren Lee Hill can be executed in spite of being mentally ill

• •  

    By Staff Blogger

The stay that halted the execution, by lethal injection, of Warren Lee Hill, in February, has now been lifted by a federal appeals court.

A petition, by Hill, for the court to hear new evidence has been denied and his execution appears to be drawing nearer.

The U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that there was not enough proof given by Hill and his attorneys that would allow them to reconsider his case again. They ruled by a vote of 2 to 1.

The judges ruled that the affidavits signed by three doctors, stating that their initial examination of Hill in 2000 saying that he was not mentally retarded were wrong, was not enough to constitute new evidence in his case.

The appeals court has effectively said that Hill’s execution, by the state of Georgia, can go ahead even though all the medical specialists that have examined Hill agree with each other that Hill is “mentally retarded.”

Hill has been very close to execution twice before. Once in July 2012 when the execution was halted just 90 minutes before the lethal injection was administered and again in February of 2013 when he was down to his last 30 minutes before the execution.

The change from a three-drug injection method to a single drug injection by the state of Georgia was one of the reasons that Hill was saved both times.

Hill’s lawyer, Brian Kammer issued a statement saying that “We are deeply disappointed that the 11th Circuit United States Court of Appeals found that procedural barriers prevent them from considering the compelling new evidence in Warren Hill’s case.”

Kammer went on to say that Hill was shown to be mentally retarded by every test that mental health experts performed on him and the new evidence shows this.

Kammer continued that Hill is not eligible for execution according to the constitution of the United States on the grounds of his mental retardation.

However, the state of Georgia is the only state where defendants must prove their mental retardation beyond a reasonable doubt. According to experts this is almost impossible to do.

Hill was originally sent to jail to serve a life sentence for the shooting and killing of his girlfriend in 1986. During his incarceration, Hill, killed another inmate, Joseph Handspike for which he is about to be executed.