Advocates Hope Hill Execution Fight Will Change State Law

O’Hayer: Warren Lee Hill is on death row for the murder of another inmate, Joseph Handspike, back in 1990. And at the time, he was already serving a life sentence for the shooting of his girlfriend, Myra Wright. The fact that he bludgeoned his cellmate to death and, then prior to that, had shot his girlfriend multiple times, does that indicate, perhaps to a judge, that he was able to form a decision? That he knew what he was doing was wrong and he was making sure of it?

Hope: I’ll go ahead and take that one, Rita. I think that what you have to do in this instance is really look at how different those two cases were. In the last case, where he attacked another inmate, it was a situation which he had been threatened and bullied and was really in fear for his life. And in those instances, I think what we’re talking about is somebody who is very, very afraid and who reacted in such a way to protect himself.

Young: Denis, this is Rita. This is a tragedy on so many levels, but we believe that Warren Hill should be held accountable for his crimes and that he should serve out his sentence in prison without the possibility of parole. But we don’t believe that he should be executed because he has an intellectual disability. And Georgia is the only state that requires this level of evidence to prove that someone has an intellectual disability. People with intellectual disabilities will be executed in this state because the burden of proof really is unreachable.

O’Hayer: Dr. Hope, let me come back to a point you made. You were talking about how somebody responds when threatened. This is someone, though, who served in the military, who, according to the AttorneyGeneral’s office was described as a leader in his family by his own relatives. So couldn’t it be argued that even if he was threatened, and—this is a terrible thing—in prison, that he would know what the chain of command would be, to try to find a solution short of bludgeoning another inmate to death?

Hope: Not necessarily. The reason he may have done an adequate job of performing in the military is decisions were made for him, he was in a very structured environment, and it is very unlikely that he ran up against situations where someone would have come at him in such a threatening way as he experienced in the prison system.

O’Hayer: Ms. Young, what is the next step for advocates and organizations like yours? Where do you go from here?

Young: We have sent out information to advocates. They have signed petitions. They have made phone calls themselves. Obviously, in the short-term, that’s what we can do, but in the long-term, we’re looking at introducing legislation to help bring that standard of proof—or that burden of proof, rather—in line with the rest of the country. I mean, we have the highest standard of proof in the nation, so it needs to be brought down to what the rest of the country is experiencing as well. So it needs to be with a preponderance of evidence instead of beyond a reasonable doubt.

O’Hayer: So, Dr. Hope, are you saying that you may not be able to save Warren Lee Hill, but you may be able to help in future cases because of the attention that this one has gotten?

Hope: You know, sadly, that may be the case. But if we do not win this case—and there’s a possibility that we will not—we will keep pushing forward to make sure that legislation is introduced so that Georgia’s standards are much more humane and, certainly, more in line with the rest of the country.

O’Hayer: Rita Young is the director of public policy and education, and Dr. Lesa Hope is director of community services for All About Developmental Disabilities which advocates for the mentally and developmentally disabled. Thanks to both of you for being with us and, obviously, we’ll keep track of this with you. We appreciate it.

Young and Hope: Thank you very much.