Clemency Hearing Scheduled For Warren Lee Hill, Jr.

The attorney for Hill says if a stay of execution is denied, the state would be executing a mentally disabled man.

There are undisputable facts regarding Warren Hill Jr.

He’s committed two murders in his lifetime and he’s been on death row for 21 years.

But it’s not clear if his mental aptitude should keep him from becoming the 30^th person in Georgia to die by lethal injection.

Hill’s attorney Brian Kammer says it’s difficult for him to show a lot of emotion and show how he’s feeling inside. He has difficulty communicating those things but I can see it in subtle ways in his demeanor and his speech.”

Brian Kammer with the Georgia Resource Center has represented Hill for nearly 16 years.

He says “any psychiatristic diagnosis is very virtually impossible to prove beyond a reasonable doubt in fact any psychiatrists or psychologists will tell you that they can’t come to any particular diagnosis to that high level of certainty.”

The U.S Supreme Court ruled the mentally retarded should not be executed but Georgia has the most stringent guidelines to prove mental retardation…beyond a reasonable doubt.

Kammer says people with Hill’s level of mental retardation and a 70 I.Q make him incapable of fully understanding his actions.

“What they don’t have is the judgment and maturity of thought that helps them always choose right from the wrong or control impulses things like that”

According to details from Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens office, during Hill’s trial for the 1990 murder of cell mate Joseph Handspike, a correctional officer testified Handspike was attacked while sleeping.

Other testimony stated the victim was badly beaten in the upper body and face.

Despite the brutality of the murder, Brian Kammer says family members of Joseph Handspike support clemency for Warren Hill, Jr.