Georgia Parole Board denies clemency to inmate found mentally disabled

Georgia Execution Chamber

A death-row inmate denied clemency Monday is asking the nation's highest court to stop his execution on grounds he is mentally disabled.

Warren Lee Hill is scheduled to be put to death Wednesday by lethal injection for beating fellow prison inmate Joseph Handspike to death with a nail-studded board. At the time, Hill was serving a life sentence for killing his 18-year-old girlfriend.

Hill's lawyer, Brian Kammer, said he was "horrified and outraged" by the parole board's decision to deny clemency, noting that a state judge previously found Hill to be mentally disabled.

Lawyers for Hill are now asking the U.S. Supreme Court to stay the xecution. The high court declined in June to hear Hill's latest appeal, but his lawyers asked the court to reconsider. Hill is asking the court to postpone the execution until it rules on that request.

The case is "close to becoming a miscarriage of justice," Hill's motion said.

If that fails, Hill will file new appeals in the state and federal courts, said Kammer.

Hill's problem is that the judge found him mentally disabled by a preponderance of the evidence — or more likely than not. Georgia's law, the only one of its kind and the strictest in the nation, requires proof beyond a reasonable doubt.

"The Board is making the same mistake it made in denying clemency for another mentally retarded inmate, Jerome Bowden, in 1986," Kammer said. "This shameful decision violates Georgia's and our nation's moral values and renders meaningless state and federal constitutional protections against wrongful execution of persons with mental retardation."

In a statement last week, the state Attorney General's Office said Hill had failed to prove he was mentally disabled.

In response to the public backlash to the execution of Bowden, who had an IQ of about 65, Georgia became the first state in the country to ban the execution of the mentally disabled. But the 1988 state law also requires capital defendants to prove their disability by clearing the stringent legal threshold.

Hill's case attracted pleas for mercy from former President Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalynn as well as state and national groups for the developmentally disabled.

Rita Young, director of public policy for All About Developmental Disabilities in Decatur, said her group believes Hill should be allowed to spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole. "We are shocked and deeply disappointed in the board's decision to execute a man with an intellectual disability," she said.

Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution, July 16, 2012

Clemency denied for Georgia death row inmate Hill

The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles has voted to deny clemency to death row inmate Warren Lee Hill, who is facing execution Wednesday.

The board announced its decision Monday after hearing arguments in the case Friday. Hill was convicted in 1991 and sentenced to death for killing a fellow inmate while serving a life sentence for the slaying of his girlfriend.

His lawyer Brian Kammer has argued that Hill is mentally disabled and therefore shouldn't be executed. Kammer said he's "horrified and outraged" by the board's decision.

"This shameful decision violates Georgia's and our nation's moral values and renders meaningless state and federal constitutional protections against wrongful execution of persons with mental retardation," he said.

Kammer had asked the board to commute Hill's sentence to life in prison without parole or to grant him a 90-day stay of execution to give the U.S. Supreme Court time to consider the case. A petition to have Hill's case heard by the U.S. Supreme Court was denied last month, but Kammer has filed a new request with the high court.

Hill and Joseph Handspike were both serving sentences for murder at the Lee Correctional Institution in 1990 when Hill beat Handspike to death. Hill was serving a life sentence at the time for the 1986 slaying of his 18-year-old girlfriend, who was shot 11 times.

Hill's defense says he is mentally disabled and therefore shouldn't be executed because state and federal law prohibit states from executing people who are mentally disabled. The state has said the defense has failed to meet its burden of proving beyond a reasonable doubt that Hill is mentally disabled.

Georgia's standard of requiring death row inmates to prove mental disability beyond a reasonable doubt is the toughest in the country. Most states that impose the death penalty have a lower threshold for defendants to prove they are mentally disabled, while some states don't set standards at all.

Kammer has said the high standard for proving mental disability is problematic because psychiatric diagnoses are subject to a degree of uncertainty that is virtually impossible to overcome. But Georgia's strict standard has repeatedly been upheld by state and federal courts.

Source: Associated Press, July 16, 2012

Japan | Steady-handed prison guard remembers faces of condemned he executed

His hands never trembled, not even as he slipped the noose around the necks of several condemned men. But now, years later, their faces return to him -- uninvited, every day. Currently in his 70s, a Japanese man who worked as a prison guard for many years at a detention center in eastern Japan, remains anonymous for privacy reasons. One morning in the 1990s, he was informed he was to be that day's "noose handler," assisted by four other prison officers and several staff in the task of hanging death row inmates. "I knew this was a road I'd have to go down eventually if I worked at a detention center," the man said in an interview with Kyodo News. "You don't have any power to veto the decision."

Saudi Arabia Executes Journalist After 7 Years Behind Bars

Saudi Arabia has executed journalist Turki Al-Jasser after seven years in prison, following accusations of terrorism and treason, which activists say were related to his critical social media posts about the royal family. Human rights groups have condemned the execution, citing it as part of the kingdom’s crackdown on free speech. A prominent Saudi journalist, Turki Al-Jasser, has been executed after spending seven years in prison, The Associated Press reported, citing the Saudi Press Agency. Activists cited by the AP argued that the charges against him were politically motivated, primarily tied to his social media activity.

South Carolina executes Stephen Stanko

South Carolina executes a man serving death sentences in 2 separate murders Washington (AFP) – A South Carolina man convicted of a 2005 double murder was put to death by lethal injection on Friday, the fourth execution in the United States this week. Stephen Stanko, 57, was pronounced dead at 6:34 pm (2234 GMT) at the state prison in Columbia, the South Carolina Department of Corrections said in a statement. Stanko had a choice between his method of execution -- firing squad, electric chair or lethal injection. He chose lethal injection. The execution began after a 3 1/2 minute final statement where Stanko apologized to his victims and asked not to be judged by the worst day of his life. Witnesses could hear prison officials asking for the first dose of the powerful sedative pentobarbital which was different from previous executions. Stanko appeared to be saying words, turned toward the families of the victims and then let out several quick breaths as his lips quivered. Stanko app...

Utah | Judge says Ralph Menzies does have dementia, but is competent enough to be executed

A Utah judge says death row inmate Ralph Menzies is mentally competent enough to be executed by firing squad. In a ruling issued Friday evening, 3rd District Judge Matthew Bates wrote that Menzies does have dementia, but it’s not enough to prevent him from understanding why he’s being punished. Menzies’ attorneys say they plan to appeal the decision to the Utah Supreme Court. The ruling caps of a monthslong competency hearing that began in November, where attorneys for Menzies argued the 67-year-old’s brain is so damaged he can’t form a “rational understanding” of why the state is pursuing the death penalty. Attorneys for the state, meanwhile, argued that Menzies does show signs of cognitive decline but he’s still competent.

Woman who watched nearly 300 executions explained moment she had to give it up

Michelle Lyons' job wasn't for the fainthearted A woman who watched nearly 300 death row executions take place over 12 years opened up about how her macabre career impacted her life. For more than a decade, it was part of Michelle Lyons' job description to observe the final moments of hundreds of prisoners in the US state of Texas. She says the process never 'become mundane or normal', although she did become acclimatized to it - as she went on to watch so many executions that she 'can't recall' a lot of them.

Witness to an execution: The human cost of the death penalty

Journalist Liz Bruening recently wrote of her experience being present for an execution and her own family’s ties to tragedy in Arlington. Editor’s note: This story contains descriptions of violence towards children and the process of an execution that some readers may find disturbing. In 2004, Alfred Bourgeois was convicted of torturing and murdering his toddler daughter at the Naval Air Station in Corpus Christi. According to the prosecution in the case, Bourgeois had abused and neglected her before finally smashing her head against the inside of his truck.

U.S. | Four executions are scheduled in four states over four days this week

Over the next four days, four inmates in four different states are scheduled to be put to death – a cluster that, while not abnormal, comes amid a national uptick in executions while President Donald Trump calls for the death penalty’s expansion. A cluster of executions is “not that unusual,” according to Robert Dunham, director of the Death Penalty Policy Project. “But it’s become increasingly rare as use of the death penalty has diminished.” Indeed, the number of executions each year remains far lower than its peak in 1999, when nearly 100 people were put to death nationwide. That figure steadily decreased until the Covid-19 pandemic, when it reached historic lows, Dunham said.

Florida | DeSantis signs death warrant for eighth execution of the year

Michael Bell, 54, is scheduled to die by lethal injection July 15 for the mistaken-revenge killing of two people outside of Jacksonville bar in 1993. Michael Bernard Bell, who was convicted for the 1993 murder of a man and woman in Jacksonville, has been scheduled for execution under the eighth death warrant signed this year by Gov. Ron DeSantis. Bell, 54, is set to die by lethal injection July 15 at Florida State Prison near the city of Starke, according to the warrant, signed Friday. He was found guilty in 1995 and sentenced to death for the murders of Jimmy West and Tamecka Smith.

Mississippi’s longest-serving death row inmate seeks clemency from governor

JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) - Mississippi’s longest-serving death row inmate is seeking clemency from Gov. Tate Reeves. On Monday, attorneys for Richard Gerald Jordan filed the petition, asking the governor to commute his sentence to life in prison without parole. Jordan’s attorneys are also requesting a 15-minute in-person or virtual interview with the state’s top elected leader. “It is the long-standing practice of the Office of the Governor in Mississippi to allow a 15 to 20-minute meeting with a death-sentenced inmate’s representatives,” Frank Rosenblatt, a representative for Jordan wrote.

Oklahoma executes John Hanson

McALESTER, Okla. (AP) — Oklahoma executed a man Thursday whose transfer to state custody was expedited by the Trump administration. John Fitzgerald Hanson, 61, received a three-drug lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester and was pronounced dead at 10:11 a.m., prison officials said. Hanson was sentenced to die after he was convicted of carjacking, kidnapping and killing a Tulsa woman in 1999. “Peace to everyone,” Hanson said while strapped to a gurney inside the prison’s death chamber.

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog