[Deathpenalty] Urgent Action 15/15 - USA: Georgia Set to Kill Intellectually Disabled Man

[Rick Halperin]

GEORGIA SET TO KILL INTELLECTUALLY DISABLED MAN For the third time in four 
years, the State of
Georgia has set an execution date for Warren Hill, who has been on death row 
since 1991. All the
experts who have assessed him, including those retained by the state, agree 
that he has intellectual
disability, which would render his execution unconstitutional. He is due to be 
put to death on 27
January.

View the full Urgent Action, including case information, addresses and sample 
messages, here.

In 2002 a state judge found that Warren Hill – who was sentenced to death in 
1991 for the 1990
murder of fellow prisoner Joseph Handspike – had “significantly sub-average 
general intellectual
functioning”, but that he had not, beyond a reasonable doubt, proved his 
“adaptive deficits”.
Georgia’s 1988 law prohibiting the use of the death penalty against anyone 
found “beyond a
reasonable doubt” to have “mental retardation”, defined this as having 
“significantly sub-average
general intellectual functioning” resulting in “impairments in adaptive 
behaviour”.

The US Supreme Court ruled in 2002 in Atkins v. Virginia that the execution of 
people with “mental
retardation” (now usually known as intellectual disability) violates the US 
Constitution. Warren
Hill’s lawyers appealed in light of the Atkins ruling. This time the 
trial-level judge decided that
the standard of proof should be “a preponderance of the evidence”, and that 
under this lower
standard, Warren Hill’s impairment did amount to intellectual disability. 
However, the state
appealed to the Georgia Supreme Court which in 2003 ruled four to three that 
the “beyond a
reasonable doubt” standard was acceptable in this context. In 2011 the US Court 
of Appeals for the
11th Circuit ruled seven to four that, even if Georgia had “somehow 
inappropriately struck the
balance” in its statute, US law prevented a federal court from acting, even if 
it considered the
state Supreme Court’s decision upholding that law to be “incorrect or unwise”.

In 2012, the state judge again found that Warren Hill had intellectual 
disability by a preponderance
of the evidence, but did not meet Georgia’s “beyond a reasonable doubt” 
standard. The latter is not
used anywhere else in the USA in such cases – most states use the preponderance 
of the evidence
standard, under which Warren Hill has been found intellectually disabled. 
Accordingly, Warren Hill
is being denied Atkins protection because of his geographical location. In such 
circumstances,
Amnesty International considers that his execution would amount to the 
arbitrary deprivation of life
in violation of article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political 
Rights, to which the
USA is a state party.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION  International law and standards prohibit the use of the 
death penalty
against people with mental and intellectual disabilities. Amnesty International 
believes that Warren
Hill’s execution would also amount to an arbitrary deprivation of life, as 
banned under article 6 of
the International Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) which the USA ratified in 
1992. The UN Human
Rights Committee, which oversees compliance with the ICCPR, has stated, 
regarding the right to
liberty, that ‘arbitrariness’ should not be equated to ‘against the law’, but 
interpreted more
broadly, to include notions of inappropriateness, injustice and lack of 
predictability.

View the full Urgent Action here.

Name: Warren Hill (m)
Issues: Death penalty, Imminent execution, Legal concern UA: 15/15
Issue Date: 21 January 2015
Country: USA

Please let us know if you took action so that we can track our impact!

EITHER send a short email to uan at aiusa.org with "UA 15/15" in the subject line, 
and include in the
body of the email the number of letters and/or emails you sent.

OR fill out this short online form to let us know how you took action.

Thank you for taking action! Please check with the AIUSA Urgent Action Office 
if sending appeals
after the above date. If you receive a response from a government official, 
please forward it to us
at uan at aiusa.org or to the Urgent Action Office address below.

HOW YOU CAN HELP

Please write immediately in English or your own language:
  *  Expressing concern that once again the State of Georgia is set to execute 
Warren Hill;
  *  Calling for the execution to be stopped and for his death sentence to be 
commuted;
  *  Noting that all experts who have assessed him agree that he has 
intellectual disability;
  *  Arguing that his execution would violate international law and US treaty 
obligations.

PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 27 JANUARY 2015 TO:

Chairman, Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles
Terry Barnard, 2 Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive, SE Suite 458, Balcony Level, 
East Tower Atlanta, GA 30334-4909, USA
Fax: 011 1 404-651-6670
Email: laqsmith at pap.state.ga.us
Salutation: Dear Chairman Barnard




And copies to:
Governor of Georgia
Nathan Deal
Office of the Governor, 206 Washington Street, 111 State Capitol
Atlanta, Georgia 30334, USA
Fax: 011 1 404-657-7332
Email: http://gov.georgia.gov/webform/contact-governor-international-form or
http://gov.georgia.gov/webform/contact-governor-domestic-form

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