Execution Date Scheduled For Mentally Disabled Man
An execution date of July 18th has been set for Georgia death row inmate Warren Lee Hill, Jr.
An execution date has been set for Georgia death row inmate Warren Lee Hill, Jr.
Hill was already serving a life sentence for murder when in 1990, he killed his cell mate.
But that would mean proving beyond a reasonable doubt Hill is mentally impaired.
In Georgia that’s not easy to do, says WABE legal analyst Page Pate.
“I think there are twenty-two other states that allow a person to establish evidence of mental retardation and avoid the death penalty. Georgia’s the only one that requires that the proof be beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Ironically, Georgia was the first state to ban the execution of the mentally retarded.
In 2002, the U.S Supreme Court upheld a statue giving states the flexibility to set the guidelines on determining retardation.
This according to Page Pate complicates cases like Hill’s because “it’s not a question of the type of evidence that can be presented to a judge or jury.”
Georgia law doesn’t “address that and the other state’s don’t really address that, what’s significant about Georgia’s law is the standard of evidence, whatever it is, you’ve got to prove beyond a reasonable doubt and that is the highest evidentiary under the law,” says Pate.
Pate says a high standard of proof makes sense when trying to convict someone of a crime but in capital punishment cases involving the mentally disabled that same standard should not apply.
“We are necessarily going to have mentally disabled individuals being executed because some folks who have that disability won’t be able to meet the evidentiary standard.”
In May of 2002, the state habeas court vacated its previous finding that Warren Lee Hill, Jr. had met the burden of proof to claim mental retardation.
But on the state’s appeal, the Georgia Supreme Court vacated that order.
Legal maneuvers thru the United States District Court, the Eleventh Circuit and the United States Supreme Court have failed for Warren Lee Hill, Jr.
His fate is now left up to the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles.
His execution is scheduled for July 18th.
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