Activists protest as US prepares to execute mentally-handicapped man
19 Feb 2013 5:57 AM IST
A mentally-handicapped man is to be put to death in the US state of Georgia on Tuesday, despite protests from human rights activists and mental health advocates calling the execution a miscarriage of justice. Warren Hill, a 52-year-old African American, is reported to have an IQ of 70, putting him below the threshold for mental disability. ‘There is no dispute among the experts that Mr Hill is mentally retarded,’ attorney Brian Kammer wrote in an appeal seeking leniency for his client. ‘Because Mr Hill's execution would be a fundamental miscarriage of justice, this Court must stay Mr Hill's imminent execution and vacate his death sentence,’ he added in another appeal.
After spending the last 21 years on death row for killing a fellow inmate, Hill was scheduled to die last July. However, the execution was put on hold for several months due to a change in how the killing was to be carried out -- Hill is to be the first in the state to receive a single deadly dose of pentobarbital, instead of the previously standard three-drug lethal cocktail.
At the time, the state supreme court ruled unanimously to grant a stay of execution, saying it needed to investigate whether a lower court erred in determining that the change in execution protocol was legal under Georgia law.
After spending the last 21 years on death row for killing a fellow inmate, Hill was scheduled to die last July. However, the execution was put on hold for several months due to a change in how the killing was to be carried out -- Hill is to be the first in the state to receive a single deadly dose of pentobarbital, instead of the previously standard three-drug lethal cocktail.
At the time, the state supreme court ruled unanimously to grant a stay of execution, saying it needed to investigate whether a lower court erred in determining that the change in execution protocol was legal under Georgia law.
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