Disabled Man With ‘Mind Of 11-Year Old Boy’ Executed in US Despite Protests

The court rejected the pardon appeal of his lawyers, despite the fact that three medical statements confirmed the man’s mental disability.

MOSCOW, January 28 (Sputnik) – Georgia State authorities denied a personal pardon to a man, suffering intellectual disabilities and having ‘the mind of an 11-year-old boy’, and executed him on Wednesday despite social protests and efforts of his lawyers to cancel the punishment, AP reported on Wednesday.

Warren Lee Hill

© AP Photo / Georgia Dept. of Corrections, File

"Today, the Court has unconscionably allowed a grotesque miscarriage of justice to occur in Georgia," Brian Kammer, the lawyer of the man, said cited by the news agency. "Georgia has been allowed to execute an unquestionably intellectually disabled man, Warren Hill, in direct contravention of the Court's clear precedent prohibiting such cruelty," he added.

That's who America executes: the mentally ill, mentally retarded, victims of trauma. #WarrenHill pic.twitter.com/uz8qA3Cz5V

— David Menschel (@davidminpdx) 27 января 2015

Kammer said that his client had a mind of a small boy and that his execution was an act of cruelty.

“He is a young boy in a man’s body,” the lawyer said, cited by LA Times. “An 11-year-old child can write competently, even speak articulately. But we don’t expect them to have the reasoning capability, the judgment or the understanding of the consequences of action that we expect of a mature adult.”

Warren Hill, 54, was charged with murdering his girlfriend in 1986 and killing his inmate in 1990 while serving his sentence, according to CNN. In 1991, he was sentenced to death, though his lawyers insisted on his mental disability.

5,000 people have signed a petition demanding the cancellation of Hill’s capital punishment. Lawyers, doctors as well as senior EU and US figures such as former President Jimmy Carter called for his mercy.

.@RobertRayAJAM Reporting from a vigil at the Ga Capitol just before the scheduled execution of #WarrenHill @ajam pic.twitter.com/lratPxyk5M

— Leslie Perrot (@leslieperrot) 27 января 2015

A few days before Hill’s execution, Hill’s lawyers provided law-enforcement services with new medical statements from three doctors, all of which confirmed Hills’ intellectual disability. However, the court took in account the previous results of a medical examination in 2000, when Hill’s mental disease was not confirmed, and rejected the pardon appeal.

#WarrenHill was a man with an intellectual disability who was executed. The state of GA and @GovernorDeal have blood on their hands.

— disABILITY LINK (@disABILITYLINK) 28 января 2015

Intellectually disabled (IQ of 70) man executed by GA. His family wants to bury him close to their home. http://t.co/e10iT5484V #WarrenHill

— BullCityVA (@BullCityVA) 28 января 2015