Hill Attorneys Challenge State’s New Execution Drug Law

House Bill 122, which went into effect at the beginning of July, protects the identity of the source of the drugs Georgia uses in executions. Warren Lee Hill’s attorneys contend that not knowing the source of the drug — and its quality — could result in cruel and unusual punishment.

Executions are on hold in at least seven states due to court challenges to their lethal injection protocols. One of those is Arkansas where legislators left the choice of the drug up to the Department of Corrections and did not require the DOC to reveal that choice.

Richard Dieter of the National Death Penalty Information Center says the legal issue in Arkansas and Georgia is twofold. “There’s the public’s right to know and freedom of speech and censorship,” said Dieter. “But there’s also the particular defendant’s need to know in order to mount a credible challenge. Can’t do that without some knowledge of the drugs, the source, the potency, the method, the training, all sorts of things that, normally, the defense can get from the state so that they can evaluate it.”

Dieter says some of the court battles have put a hold on executions for years.

“I can’t see how they’re going to get all of this settled tomorrow with an execution literally hanging over the whole case,” said Dieter. “You need some information even if it’s secret, even if it’s under seal. And whatever that judge rules is going to be appealed.”

Friday’s execution date is the fourth the state has set for Warren Lee Hill. The warrant for his death expires on Saturday. He is scheduled to die for killing Joseph Handspike in 1990. Both were inmates at the Lee Correctional Facility, where Hill was already serving life for killing his girlfriend in 1986.