SALON

Thursday, Feb 21, 2013 1:00 AM UTC

2 executions in Georgia temporarily halted

By

Topics: From the Wires,

ATLANTA (AP) — A federal appeals court gave a Georgia death row inmate a temporary last-minute reprieve because doctors changed their minds and now believe he’s mentally disabled, but his legal battle to avoid lethal injection could be an uphill climb.

The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday issued a stay less than an hour before Warren Lee Hill was set to die. In a 2-1 decision, the judges said more review of the doctors’ statements was needed. Still, Hill faces strict requirements to get his case reconsidered.

“If this were easy, it would have been picked off months ago and not at 6:30 (Tuesday) night,” said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center. “The fact that it was so late, I think, means that it’s going to be a hard fight. But the 11th Circuit said at least there’s some way that he could still prevail.”

Hill was one of two Georgia inmates scheduled to die this week. The planned Thursday execution of Andrew Cook was also halted.

Lawyers for both Cook and Hill argued in filings before the Georgia Court of Appeals that the state would violate the law by using pentobarbital in executions without a prescription. The government called the claim frivolous and challenged both rulings.

Prosecutors also asked the U.S. Supreme Court to vacate the 11th Circuit’s order halting Hill’s execution on the mental disability claim.

Hill was sentenced to die for the 1990 beating death of fellow inmate Joseph Handspike. Hill used a board studded with nails and bludgeoned Handspike while he slept, authorities said. At the time, Hill was already serving a life sentence for the 1986 slaying of his girlfriend, Myra Wright, who was shot 11 times.

The dissenting opinion from the 11th Circuit illustrates why the fight could be difficult for Hill.

Circuit Judge Frank Hull said Hill has already brought up his claim in federal court and can’t do so again. The judge also faulted Hill’s lawyers for waiting until the last minute to bring up the new evidence even though one of the doctors approached them to say he wanted to reconsider the case in July.

Georgia passed a law in 1988 prohibiting the execution of mentally disabled death row inmates, and the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2002 that the execution of mentally disabled offenders was unconstitutional. But Georgia also has the strictest-in-the-nation standard for death row inmates seeking to avoid execution, requiring them to prove their mental disability beyond a reasonable doubt.

Most states that impose the death penalty have a lower threshold, while some don’t set standards at all.

Hill’s lawyers have long claimed he’s mentally disabled and therefore shouldn’t be executed.

Last week they released new sworn statements from the three doctors who examined Hill in 2000 and previously testified he was not mentally disabled.

In their new statements, the doctors wrote they were rushed in their evaluation at the time, they had acquired additional experience and there had been scientific developments in the intervening 12 years. All three wrote they now believe Hill is mentally disabled.

“In other words, all of the experts — both the state’s and the petitioner’s — now appear to be in agreement that Hill is in fact mentally retarded,” the 11th Circuit judges in the majority wrote.

The state questioned the doctors’ credibility, saying they hadn’t seen Hill in person since 2000. The government also cited IQ tests and argued that family members described him as “the leader of the family” and “a father figure” before his trial. He was not in special education classes and served in the Navy, where he received promotions, the state argued.

The 11th Circuit set a period of up to 30 days for the two sides to spell out their arguments.

Dieter said Hill has new evidence, but he’s not contending that it proves his innocence, but rather that he’s mentally disabled.

“If you can prove that you’re in a class that the Supreme Court has excluded from the death penalty, it’s like proving your innocence,” Dieter said. “I think one thing DNA and all the innocence cases have taught us is that sometimes there just is new evidence that ought to trump procedural bars.”

More By Kate Brumback.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 0 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: Chekhov's story mirrors Russia's own

Recommendations