UPDATE: Death row inmate Warren Hill executed tonight

• Illustration by Wes Duvall
• Warren Lee Hill

Warren Lee Hill, an intellectually disabled death-row inmate who's faced the execution chamber three times during the last three years, was executed tonight.

Georgia Department of Corrections officials executed the 54-year-old former U.S. Navy petty officer, who has an IQ of 70, at 7:55 p.m. tonight via lethal injection. The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles this morning voted to deny clemency. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to intervene to stop the execution.

Twenty-nine years ago Hill was convicted for the murder of Myra Wright, his girlfriend at the time. In 1991, he was found guilty of a second murder after he bludgeoned fellow inmate Joseph Handspike, who had been sleeping inside his cell, with a nail-studded two-by-six board.

Hill's attorneys, never disputing the inmate's guilt, repeatedly tried to convince judges and attorney generals to spare his life. In particular, they've cited his Eighth Amendment right to not be subject to cruel and unusual punishment. In most states, people deemed to have an intellectual disability, typically defined as an IQ of 70 or below, are not eligible for the death penalty. However, Georgia is home to the nation's toughest burden of proof for mental capacity. That's why Hill again faced death via lethal injection.

The execution came at a time when state officials are killing its prisoners at a faster pace that at any other point in the last decade. His scheduled execution follows a year that had the lowest number of executions in the U.S. since 1994, according to the Southern Center for Human Rights.

Today marked the fourth time Hill has been scheduled for execution. Hill received stays of execution twice just hours before his death. Before this evening, he had eaten final meals — a standard prison serving of macaroni, baked beans, stir-fried vegetables, corn bread, and iced tea — twice. He received a dose of benzodiazepine once to reduce his anxiety. As he's prepared to die each time, a judge has decided to let him live a little bit longer. But not tonight.

During his last stay of execution in July 2013, a Fulton County judge extended Hill's life to hear a legal challenge over the state's controversial lethal injection secrecy law. Hill lost that battle in the Georgia Supreme Court last May. In the wake of the defeat, Hill's lawyers had hoped that the courts would give Hill's case another look following the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark decision, Hall v. Florida, which boosts protections for intellectually disabled inmates on death row.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit yesterday denied a request to reconsider Hill's mental capacity given the Hall v. Florida decision. Judge Beverly Martin, who wrote the dissenting opinion in Hill's latest 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling, noted that "every mental health expert who has ever evaluated Mr. Hill, now including the state’s three experts, has concluded he is intellectually disabled." But Georgia's burden of proof requirement has stopped his case from otherwise being seriously considered.

“Last year, in Hall v. Florida, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that death row defendants must have a 'fair opportunity' to prove their disability, and that states may not create unacceptable risks that the intellectually disabled will be executed," Hill's attorney Brian Kammer said in a statement. "Mr. Hill has not been given that fair opportunity."

Francys Johnson, president of the NAACP's Georgia chapter, yesterday said in a statement that the state's legal system had brought "shame and embarrassment" by not protecting the state's most vulnerable residents.

Several advocacy groups — including the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, the Georgia Council on Developmental Disabilities, All About Developmental Disabilities, and the Arc of Georgia — had urged the board to spare Hill's life given his intellectual disability.

"Although the federal and Georgia courts have upheld this standard of proof, we nonetheless firmly believe that this standard puts people with intellectual disabilities at heightened risk of wrongful execution and indeed legitimizes the execution of people with intellectual disabilities," The Arc of Georgia President Torin Togut wrote in a letter to the board.

Georgia's pardon and paroles board last night held a two-hour clemency hearing, where they heard pleas from Hill's supporters, urging for members to spare his life. In the past, even the family of one of Hill's victims has supported the effort to save his life due to his mental capacity. But this morning the board voted to deny him clemency.

"The clemency board missed an opportunity to right a grave wrong," Kammer said in a statement. "It is now up to the U.S. Supreme Court to ensure that an unconstitutional execution of a man with lifelong intellectual disability is prevented."

Hill's lawyer had asked the U.S. Supreme Court to consider both a motion for stay of execution and petition for writ of certiorari. However, the nation's highest court declined the requests.

This is a developing story. We'll be posting updates through the evening as more information becomes available. We've included a list of scheduled vigils that you can find after the jump:

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Vigil Locations and Schedule
Jackson: Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison, 6:30 PM
Atlanta: Vigil at State Capitol Steps, 6:30 PM
Americus: US Post Office Prince St. & Forsyth St., 12:00 PM
Athens: UGA Arch on E. Broad St., 6:30 PM
Augusta: Augusta Commons, 836 Reynolds Street at Broad Street Entrance (Across from James Brown Statute), 6:30 PM
Clarkesville: Clarkesville Courthouse near the Gazebo, 226 Grant St., 6:30 PM
Dawson: Intersection of Hwy 520 and Hwy 82, 6:30 PM
Conyers: Rockdale County Courthouse; Milstead Ave. side; 922 Court St.; Conyers, GA 30012, 6:30 PM
Macon: Macon City Hall 700 Poplar St.Macon, GA 31201 6:30 PM
Marietta: Cobb County Courthouse, On Marietta Square Cherokee St./Roswell St., 6:30 PM

NOTE: This story has been updated to include additional information.