Ga. judge temporarily stays planned Hill execution amid concerns about lethal injection issues

Source: ThinkProgress

Rose Scott, a reporter with Atlanta, Georgia’s NPR affiliate reports that “Judge Gail Tusan in Fulton Superior Court has imposed a short stay of execution until Thursday, July 18th for Warren Lee Hill.” Although all seven mental health professionals who evaluated Hill concluded that he is intellectually disabled, and thus cannot lawfully be executed under a Supreme Court decision holding that “death is not a suitable punishment for a mentally retarded criminal,” Georgia has thus far managed to evade this constitutional ban on executing people like Hill due to a series of legal loopholes. The specific grounds for Judge Tusan’s order staying the execution are not yet clear.



Update
The stay was granted while the court considers the validity of a law that “purposely shields from judicial review the manner by which the drugs to be used in his execution were manufactured and obtained.” Judge Tusan’s order does not involve the question of whether Hill can be executed despite his mental disability.

Read more: http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/07/15/2304471/breaking-judge-stays-execution-of-intellectually-disabled-man-in-georgia/

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Ga. judge temporarily stays planned Hill execution amid concerns about lethal injection issues
http://savannahnow.com/news/2013-07-15/georgia-judge-temporarily-stays-planned-hill-execution#.UeRXN-CWG9s

A Fulton County judge has temporarily stayed a scheduled execution Monday after the inmate's attorneys raised questions about a law prohibiting the release of information involving Georgia's execution drug supply.

This isn't the first time Warren Lee Hill's execution has been halted because of a challenge to the state's execution method. Last July, his execution was put on hold pending a challenge to the state's plan to change from a three-drug process to a single dose of pentobarbital.