Warren Lee Hill is set to be executed at 7 p.m. Jan. 27 at the state prison in Jackson, Georgia. The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles voted to deny clemency. If three people had voted to spare him, his execution would have been halted. He has an IQ of 70. He killed two people, one of whom was his cellmate in prison, a sexual predator whom he feared, according to court records.
The Parole Board announced its decision by stating it, “thoroughly reviewed all information and documents pertaining to the case. In addition to hearing testimony during the meeting on Monday, the Board, prior to the meeting, had thoroughly reviewed the parole case file on the inmate which includes the circumstances of the death penalty case, the inmate’s criminal history, and a comprehensive history of the inmate’s life.”
Hill was sentenced to serve life in prison for the 1986 killing of his 18-year-old girlfriend, who he shot 11 times. While serving that sentence, he beat a fellow inmate, Joseph Handspike, to death using a nail-studded board. A jury in 1991 convicted Hill of murder and sentenced him to death.
Groups that advocate for disabled people, civil liberties groups, and people opposed to the death penalty, all support life in prison instead of death for Hill.
“The clemency board missed an opportunity to right a grave wrong. It is now up to the U.S. Supreme Court to ensure that an unconstitutional execution of a man with lifelong intellectual disability is prevented,” said Hill’s attorney, Brian Kammer, in a statement Tuesday morning.
Like an 11-Year-Old
Kammer described Hill’s limitations: “According to every doctor who has ever examined him, Mr. Hill has intellectual disability. Mr. Hill’s disability means that he has the emotional and cognitive functioning of an 11-year-old boy. That is why the Supreme Court has outlawed the execution of the intellectually disabled.”
The Supreme Court forbids people with intellectual disabilities from being executed. In Georgia, because of an unusual state law, Hill has not meet the standard of proof that would have allowed him to serve life in prison instead. Georgia requires proof beyond a reasonable doubt. All other states require proof based on the preponderance of the evidence.
Kammer hopes the U.S. Supreme Court will halt the execution, though it never stepped in before during Hill’s previous three scheduled execution dates.
