Mentally Disabled Georgia Death Row Inmate Down To Final Options

On February 19^th at 7pm, Warren Lee Hill, Jr. is scheduled to become the state’s 30th inmate to die by lethal injection.

WABE legal analyst Page Pate says Hill’s attorneys are once again down to their last option.

“Mr. Hill’s lawyers still have the opportunity to seek another stay from the United States Supreme Court and I anticipate they will probably try to do that.”

And they have, last December, what’s called a cert petition was filed with the United States Supreme Court.

That means Hill is asking for an opportunity to argue before the high court.

If granted that would allow lawyers to argue Hill is mentally disabled and Georgia’s standard for reviewing claims of mental disability in death penalty cases may be unconstitutional.

In 2002, the United States Supreme Court banned the execution of the “mentally retarded”.

However, in Georgia it must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.

That’s too extreme says Rita Young.

“Here in Georgia, we have the strictest standard of proof for an individual with an intellectual disability who’s on death row. We believe that Georgia should align with the nation and changed that burden of proof to a preponderance of evidence.”

Young the executive director of the Decatur based All About Developmental Disabilities is not alone in that stance.

Eric Jacobson is the executive Director of the Georgia Council on Developmental Disabilities.

He says it is ironic Georgia was the first state to ban the execution of the mentally disabled, but now “it puts us in a bad position I think and I think again it suggestions that our policy makers need to reexamine this and make sure that we come into the same grouping as other states across the country.”

It would have to take the Georgia legislature to amend the current law.

However when asked by WABE about the current statue, Governor Nathan Deal said he didn’t see the need for a change.

“Our present statue has stood the test of time and has stood the review of the courts, unless some of the gentlemen who standing with me and ladies who are standing with me today have legislative initiatives to do so, I would have no intention on my part to revisit that issue.”

In Georgia, the governor has no pardon or commute powers in death row cases.