ATLANTA (AP) - The state of Georgia is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to vacate a federal appeals court order temporarily halting the execution of a death row inmate.
The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday issued a stay less than an hour before Warren Lee Hill was set to die by lethal injection. The court's order said further review is needed of recent affidavits by doctors who changed their minds about Hill's mental capacity.
Lawyers for Georgia on Wednesday said Hill's federal petition for habeas relief is procedurally barred and said the new statements from the doctors aren't credible.
Hill was sentenced to death in the 1990 killing of a fellow inmate. His lawyers have long argued he is mentally disabled and therefore shouldn't be executed.
