A Georgia parole board on Tuesday morning cited Hill’s criminal record and life history as being ineligible for clemency. This despite the fact several medical experts had examined Hill and found him to be intellectually disabled.
While a 2002 Supreme Court ruling banned the execution of intellectually disabled prisoners, it didn’t set a standard definition for – what it called – “mentally retarded.” This leaves it up to individual states to determine its own definition, and Georgia had deemed Hill fit.
A motion for a stay of execution filed with the U.S. Supreme Court was rejected on Tuesday evening.
Hill’s lawyer, Brian Kammer, told the Guardian that “the Supreme Court needs to police states like Georgia on these issues. Otherwise, the Constitution loses its authority and force, and we a miscarriage of justice.”
Hill was on death row for the murder of Joseph Handspike, a fellow prisoner, in 1990. He was already serving a life sentence for the murder of former girlfriend. Hill had faced execution three times before, only to be spared at the last moment.
Another prisoner whom experts have diagnosed as intellectually disabled is also set to be executed on Thursday in Texas.
