ATLANTA – The execution of a Georgia man whose attorneys claim he is mentally disabled remained on hold today 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.