Next Legal Round For Warren Lee Hill, Jr. vs. GA Dept Corrections
It’s not clear how long it will take to get through the next steps regarding Warren Lee Hill, Jr.
Monday, July 23rd, the Supreme Court of Georgia granted Hill a stay of execution based upon his appeal.
Hill’s appeal claims the department of corrections changed the lethal injection protocol without abiding by a state law.
That law is the Georgia Administrative Procedure Act.
It states before adopting, amending or repealing a rule an agency must give 30 days’ notice of the intended action.
Also all interested persons must be given a reasonable opportunity to submit their views, opinions or arguments either orally or in writing.
It’s a little complicated says WABE legal analyst Page Pate.
“This argument is procedural and it’s technical. It’s a novel argument. I don’t think there’s any question that the department of corrections is a state agency and that Administrative Procedures Act applies to it.”
However at issue says Pate is whether or not the law requires the Georgia Department of Corrections to abide by all those specifics.
“The question here will be whether or not the specific language of this statute requires the department of corrections to notify folks before it changes the method of execution and whether or not there’s going to be an opportunity for some public input into that change.”
Parties have until Aug 13th to file briefs and request oral arguments.
Those arguments would most likely happen in November and the court would expect to issue a ruling no later than March 30th of next year.
The state Attorney General’s officewould represent the Department of Corrections.
In an email the AG’s office told WABE, “We have no comment on the case.”
Beginning with Hill, Pate says both sides will have compelling arguments.
Hill’s attorney are hoping that, “ultimately if the court adopts a broad interpretation of that statue then yes the department of corrections violated it,” says Pate.
As for the department of corrections, Pate says, “there are few cases where lawyers have tried to get agency determinations, specifically in the criminal justice area, to be covered by this statue and those efforts have failed.”
Meanwhile, Hill’s attorney Brian Kammer, says this new development will not deter efforts of having Hill’s death sentence commuted to life.
Kammer tells WABE, “we will able to do that without pressure of an execution warrant.”
While already serving life, Warren Lee Hill, Jr. was sentenced to death for the 1990 murder of another inmate.
He’s been evaluated as mentally disabled.
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