Execution for Warren Lee Hill set for Jan. 27
Jennifer Parks
ATLANTA — The execution for an inmate convicted of two murders, including a fellow inmate in Lee County, has been officially set by the Georgia Department of Corrections for Jan. 27.
Corrections Commissioner Brian Owens has set the date for the execution of Warren Lee Hill for Jan. 27 at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson at 7 p.m., a news release issued by the agency said.
The Lee County Superior Court ordered the execution of Hill Friday. The order called for the execution to be carried out on a date between Jan. 27 and Feb. 3.
Hill was convicted in 1991 for the murder of Joseph Handspike, a fellow inmate who he allegedly beat to death while imprisoned in Lee County in August 1990. At the time, Hill was serving a life sentence for the shooting death of Myra Wright, 18, in 1986.
Hill’s attorneys have attempted to halt the execution based on mental capacity, contending he has a mental handicap making him ineligible for the death penalty. In Georgia, verification needed for barring an execution based on intellectual disability requires proof beyond a reasonable doubt.
Hill’s legal team has also made the argument that it is unconstitutional for Georgia to refuse to disclose the source of its lethal drugs, which the Georgia Supreme Court rejected.
If executed, Hill will be the 34th inmate put to death by lethal injection in Georgia. He will follow Andrew Brannan, who was executed Jan. 13 for the shooting death of a Laurens County deputy in 1998.
He has been granted stays on three occasions, making this the fourth scheduled execution for Hill.
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