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July 12, 2013

Georgia to Execute Mentally Disabled Man Unless Supreme Court Issues Stay 
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The state of Georgia is set to put a mentally disabled prisoner to death
on Monday unless the U.S. Supreme Court intervenes. Warren Hill was
sentenced to death for murdering a fellow prisoner while serving a life
sentence for fatally shooting his girlfriend. He was granted a
last-minute reprieve before his last scheduled execution in February. A
2002 Supreme Court ruling bans the execution of people deemed mentally
retarded but Georgia is the only state that requires proof of such
disabilities "beyond a reasonable doubt." Three experts who once
testified Hill did not meet the criteria have since recanted. The New
York Times wrote in an editorial Thursday: "All seven experts who have
examined Mr. Hill now agree he is mentally retarded. If that doesn’t
count as proof beyond a reasonable doubt, it is hard to imagine what
would." Warren Hill will die Monday at 7 p.m. from a single injection of
pentobarbitol unless the Supreme Court stays his execution.

 

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