last-minute decision

Georgia Court Halts Execution

After doctors say death row prisoner is mentally disabled.

Better last-minute than never. The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals halted the planned execution of a Georgia man who killed a fellow prisoner in 1990 after recent affidavits by doctors changed their mind and agreed he has a mental disability. Warren Lee Hill was granted a stay of execution as he was being prepared for lethal injection Tuesday night, after the Supreme Court of Georgia and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to stop the execution. The appeals judges wrote that further review was necessary after “all of the experts—both the State’s and the petitioner’s—now appear to be in agreement that Hill is in fact mentally retarded.”