ATLANTA —
Georgia’s attorney general on Tuesday asked the state’s highest court to expedite an appeal in the case of a death row inmate whose execution was delayed a day earlier.
The Georgia Supreme Court on Monday granted a stay of execution to Warren Lee Hill so it could consider his appeal involving Georgia’s recent change in its execution drug protocol. Hill was the first inmate set to be executed in Georgia since the state changed its execution procedure last week from a three-drug injection to a single dose of the sedative penotobarbital.
The high court said it would consider whether the switch is subject to the state’s Administrative Procedure Act, which requires public hearings before such a change is made.
“The entry of a stay by this Court has the practical effect of halting the carrying out of court ordered executions in Georgia until resolution of this issue by this Court,” Attorney General Sam Olens said in a court filing Tuesday.
For that reason, Olens asks that the high court set an expedited calendar for the appeal, requiring both sides to submit their briefs before the end of August and setting oral arguments for September, or as soon as is possible. The case has been through many appeals and its facts are well known to lawyers on both sides, so an expedited process shouldn’t be a burden, Olens argues in the filing.
Hill’s lawyer Brian Kammer said the case is already moving quickly with oral arguments likely in November without expedited consideration.
Hill was convicted in the August 1990, beating death of fellow inmate Joseph Handspike. Hill was serving a life sentence at the time for the shooting death of his 18-year-old girlfriend. Hill was convicted in 1991 on charges of malice murder, felony murder and aggravated assault in Handspike’s death and was sentenced to death.
In addition to the challenge based on the execution drug change, Hill’s defense had also filed a separate appeal arguing that Hill is mentally disabled and asking the state Supreme Court to reconsider his case on those grounds.
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that executing the mentally disabled is unconstitutional and Georgia law prohibits it. The state has said Hill’s defense lawyers failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Hill is mentally disabled, which is required under Georgia law. The state high court on Monday declined to take up that appeal.
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