Motions To Stay Execution Filed For Warren Lee Hill, Jr.
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Attorneys for Georgia death row inmate Warren Lee Hill, Jr. have filed a stay of execution in the 11th U.S Circuit Court of Appeals and the United States Supreme Court.
Hill is scheduled to die by lethal injection a week from today, Monday July 15th.
Hill’s legal team is asking for the stay because of a pending petition with the nation’s high court.
Brian Kammer says he doesn’t understand why the state of Georgia is in such a rush to execute his client Warren Lee Hill, Jr. as opposed to what he calls letting the judicial process work.
“I frankly think that is this a grotesque spectacle to seek to quickly execute Mr. Hill before the Supreme Court has had a chance to really consider the case. I think it reprehensible and shameful.”
Brian Kammer is the executive director of the Georgia Resource Center.
According to Kammer, the U.S. Supreme Court has scheduled a conference for September 30th.
During that conference the justices will discuss Hill’s latest petition.
Not many are privy to what takes place in these types of discussions says WABE legal analyst and criminal defense attorney Page Pate.
“Generally it’s where the justices discuss the case and whether they’re going to basically grant the petition allow for further briefing and ultimately allow for oral argument.”
The Georgia death row inmate is seeking a new hearing based on new evidence his attorneys say proves he is indeed mentally disabled.
That evidence includes affidavits from the three state appointed doctors that initially assessed Hill’s mental capacity.
All three now concur, that Hill by standards defined as being mentally retarded, was incorrectly assessed in 2000.
Page Pate also questions why the Georgia Department of Corrections scheduled an execution:
“The Department of Corrections [Georgia] is ultimately responsible for scheduling that day, but they’re going to check with their lawyer and their lawyer is the attorney general. The attorney general, of course, is well aware that there’s a petition pending with the Supreme Court and that petition has been scheduled for conference.”
Attorneys also filed a motion for stay of execution with the Supreme Court of the United States.
A ruling from the three justices of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals could come this week.
A spokesperson told WABE, Georgia Attorney General, Sam Olens had no comment.
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