Mentally Disabled Georgia Death Row Inmate Granted Stays of Execution

But two stays were granted, one regarding the lethal injection change and the other on Hill’s mental disability claim.

In Georgia the mental disability claim must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt to prevent execution.

WABE legal analyst Page Pate says the stay from the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals was granted after Hill’s attorneys petitioned the court.

“That would allow them to file another Habeas petition in federal court apparently challenging the constitutionality of Georgia’s standard and also allow them an opportunity to present this new evidence or change in testimony from the state’s experts.”

Those experts were the three doctors who, recently in affidavits, stated they were rushed to judgment in their original assessment of Warren Lee Hill, Jr. and now feel their evaluations were inaccurate.

But Pate says there is a chance the state Attorney General’s office could petition the courts to dissolve the stays.

“And basically argue that there is no merit to Mr. Hill’s lawyer’s argument for another habeas hearing. And that’s basically what the AG’s office has argued in the state supreme court, so they could make that argument again.”

Pate says that would be unusual and would take a lot of time.

“You can’t do that in a day, you can’t do that in a couple of days; that generally is going to take some time,” says Pate.

In a statement, one of Hill’s attorneys Brian Kammer said, “We are greatly relieved that the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals has stayed the execution of Warren Hill, a person with mental retardation.”

It went on to say, “all the doctors who have examined Mr. Hill are unanimous in their diagnosis of mental retardation, so there is no question that his execution would have been in violation of the U.S. Supreme Court.”

That was a 2002 ruling banning the execution of the mentally disabled.

Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens declined to comment for this story.