Protesters Rally to Postpone Warren Lee Hill Execution
The following is an article from 11 Alive News, featuring comments from GCDD Executive Director Eric Jacobson on Warren Hill's execution set for Monday, July 15.
11 Alive News, 7/15/13, Click here to read online. (This link is no longer active.)
Protesters Rally to Postpone Warren Lee Hill Execution
11 Alive News
ATLANTA -- Warren Lee Hill is scheduled to be executed on Monday, and his supporters are rallying across the state asking for a delay.
Protesters will hold events in Atlanta and nine other cities to bring attention to Hill's case. A candlelight vigil will be held on the Georgia State Capitol steps after a march beginning at Woodruff Park at 5 p.m.
Hill was serving a life sentence for killing his girlfriend. That was upgraded to a death sentence after he beat a fellow inmate to death behind bars in 1990.
For months his supporters have been arguing Hill is intellectually disabled and therefore should not be executed.
"Here in Georgia we require a defendant prove to prove intellectual disability beyond a reasonable doubt. It is the heaviest burden of proof in the law and Georgia is the only state that requires it," said Rita Young, director of All About Developmental Disabilities.
"The support of this position really goes back to the Supreme Court and its landmark 2002 Atkins Vs. Virginia ruling noting that people with disabilities are less culpable for their actions and are a greater risk for wrongful execution," said Eric Jacobson with Georgia's Council on Developmental Disabilities.
In May Hill's lawyers asked the U.S. Supreme Court to delay their client's execution until the court has a chance to consider new evidence they've filed. The court is currently scheduled to consider whether to take up his case on Sept. 30, but the execution is scheduled for Monday unless the Supreme Court offers to take the case.
