Georgia Sets Execution Date for Inmate with Intellectual Disabilities

Georgia has set an exe­cu­tion date of January 27 for Warren Hill, an inmate diag­nosed with intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ties (for­mer­ly referred to as ​“men­tal retar­da­tion”). If Hill was con­vict­ed in any oth­er state in the coun­try, he almost cer­tain­ly would be inel­i­gi­ble for the death penal­ty. The U.S. Supreme Court banned the exe­cu­tion of peo­ple with intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ties in Atkins v. Virginia (2002), but allowed states to set pro­ce­dures for deter­min­ing this dis­abil­i­ty. Georgia set the strictest stan­dard, requir­ing proof ​“beyond a rea­son­able doubt.” A Georgia judge found Hill intel­lec­tu­al­ly dis­abled under a ​“pre­pon­der­ance of the evi­dence” stan­dard, which is the test used in most states. Hill’s attor­neys have asked for a stay of exe­cu­tion, say­ing that Georgia’s unusu­al stan­dard vio­lates the Supreme Court’s 2014 rul­ing in Hall v. Florida, which struck down Florida’s unusu­al IQ cut­off for deter­min­ing intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty. Brian Kammer, an attor­ney for Hill, said, ​“Twice the low­er court found Warren Hill to have intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty by the pre­pon­der­ance of the evi­dence, a wide­ly-used and appro­pri­ate stan­dard. All of the states’ experts have agreed, and in fact no expert who has ever exam­ined Mr. Hill dis­putes that he has intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty.” UPDATE: The Georgia Supreme Court reject­ed Hill’s most recent appeal on Jan. 20. UPDATE: (1/​28/​15) Warren Hill was exe­cut­ed on January 27, 2015.

Kammer stat­ed fur­ther, ​“Many promi­nent lead­ers in the field of intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty agree that Mr. Hill should not face exe­cu­tion because he is a per­son with life­long intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty. The only rea­son that he is now at risk of exe­cu­tion is that Georgia’s stan­dard – requir­ing cap­i­tal defen­dants to prove they have intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty ​‘beyond a rea­son­able doubt’ – is not sci­ence-based and inher­ent­ly denies peo­ple like Mr. Hill from receiv­ing the pro­tec­tion which the U.S. Supreme Court has ordered.”

(J. Glenza, ​“Georgia sets new exe­cu­tion date for ​‘men­tal­ly dis­abled’ man,” The Guardian, January 17, 2015). Georgia’s first exe­cu­tion of 2015 involved a Vietnam vet­er­an (Andrew Brannan) with PTSD and oth­er men­tal prob­lems. See Intellectual Disability and Arbitrariness.