Warren Hill (prisoner)

Warren Hill (June 1960 – January 27, 2015) was a prisoner executed in Georgia in the United States. Hill was originally sentenced to life imprisonment for shooting his girlfriend, Myra Wright, in 1985. He was subsequently sentenced to death for killing his cellmate, Joseph Handspike.[1] In 1990 Hill killed Handspike in their cell by bludgeoning him to death with a wooden board studded with nails.[2][3]

His execution by lethal injection, scheduled for July 15, 2013, was postponed due to a legal challenge against Georgia's Lethal Injections Secrecy Act. This law, passed in March 2013, makes the identities of companies and individuals who make and supply lethal injection drugs, and the identities of the doctors hired by the state to oversee executions, a “state secret” that must be shielded from disclosure to the public, the media, and even the judiciary. Hill's lawyers successfully argued that this would prevent Hill from knowing whether the execution would be carried out by competent personnel using properly formulated drugs.[4] The secrecy regime was ultimately upheld by the Georgia Supreme Court.[5]

There was also controversy as to whether or not Hill qualified as being mentally disabled, a designation that would have precluded him from being executed.[6] On this basis of his mental capabilities the European Union had appealed several times to the Georgia Chairman of the Board of Pardons and Paroles and Georgia Governor Nathan Deal to prevent Hill from being executed.[7] Hill was executed on January 27, 2015.[8][9]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Ed Pilkington (28 January 2015). "Georgia executes inmate Warren Hill after supreme court refuses stay". The Guardian. Retrieved 29 January 2015.
  2. ↑ Kathy Lohr (20 February 2013). "Georgia Death Penalty Under Renewed Scrutiny After 11th-Hour Stay". NPR. Retrieved 29 January 2015.
  3. ↑ Rania Khalek (14 August 2013). "The Death Row Torture Of Warren Hill". The Nation. Retrieved 27 January 2015.
  4. ↑ "BBC News - Warren Hill execution stayed due to lethal drug law". Bbc.co.uk. 15 July 2013. Retrieved 16 July 2013.
  5. ↑ "Owens v Hill". Justia.com. Retrieved 27 January 2015.
  6. ↑ Ed Pilkington (11 July 2013). "Warren Hill faces Monday execution unless US supreme court steps in". London: The Guardian. Retrieved 14 July 2013.
  7. ↑ "Letter to the Georgia Chairman of the Board of Pardons and Paroles on Death Penalty Case - Mr Warren Lee Hill". euintheus.org. 22 January 2015. Retrieved 27 January 2015.
  8. ↑ Kate Brumback (27 January 2015). "Warren Hill Executed Despite Being Labeled Intellectually Disabled". huffingtonpost.com. Retrieved 29 January 2015.
  9. ↑ Editorial Board (23 January 2015). "Georgia, Back in the Death-Penalty Spotlight". New York Times. Retrieved 25 January 2015.