Georgia to execute intellectually disabled man

Warren Hill has an IQ of 70. He is a person with lifelong intellectual disability, yet Georgia plans to put him to death on Tuesday regardless of this fact.

The state is pushing ahead even though the Supreme Court decided in Atkins v. Virginia back in 2002 that executing persons with an intellectual disability violates the Constitution's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. The family of Mr. Hill's victim shares that view: They don't want Georgia to execute Mr. Hill. Unless the courts intervene, Mr. Hill's life will end in an execution that serves no valid penological purpose and puts us all to shame.

Experts past and present have observed and confirmed Mr. Hill's intellectual disability. In his school records from more than 40 years ago, teachers recognized his disability. More recently, all of the doctors who have examined Mr. Hill agree that he is intellectually disabled, including three who were hired by the state seeking to execute him. Two Georgia courts also found that Mr. Hill is intellectually disabled. In other states, those rulings would have guaranteed his protection from the death penalty.

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