The lights are about to go out in Georgia...again:
Warren Hill has an IQ of 70 and placed in the third percentile on his middle-school standardized test. Doctors have found him to be "mildly mentally retarded." But even though the US Supreme Court in 2002 ruled that executing the mentally handicapped is unconstitutional, Hill will be put to death today, barring a late intervention by the courts.So, basically, there's every reason in the world for Georgia not to execute Warren Hill, but Georgia's GOP governor, Nathan Deal, is going to do it anyway. Just like the state did to Troy Davis.In 1989, while serving a life sentence for murdering his girlfriend, Hill was given the death penalty for murdering his cellmate with a wooden board. Georgia had outlawed the death penalty for the mentally handicapped by then, but the state mandated that defendants prove their handicap "beyond a reasonable doubt"—putting the burden of proof, in other words, on the disabled defendant.
Hill's appeal rests mostly on a single compelling point: The team of state doctors who originally concluded he qualified for capital punishment has completely reversed itself, citing their own inexperience (one of them had never evaluated a patient for mental retardation before) and advances in the field.
As a reminder, the only other countries that persist in using capital punishment in 2013 are pretty much the so-called 'axis of evil' and a few other countries that don't really kill people anymore, but still have the law on the books.
Warren Hill is set to die at 7 PM tonight -- here's the information to call, email and generally raise hell:
Governor Nathan Deal:Document your calls -- and other phone numbers and email addresses you can find for contact use -- in the comments.Phone:
404-656-1776Fax:
404-657-7332Chris Riley, Chief of staff: (404) 656-1776
Brian Robinson, Deputy chief of staff for communications: (404) 651-7774
Carrie Ashbee, Executive assistant to Gov. Deal: (404) 656-1776