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Georgia Council on Developmental Disabilities: Warren Hill Case a Major Disappointment

The following is an article and audio clip from Macon 41NBC/WMGT featuring GCDD Executive Director Eric Jacobson commenting on the pending appeal in the Georgia Supreme Court on Warren Hill's execution.

41NBC/WMGT, 10/7/13, Click here to read the article online and here the audio clip.

Georgia Council on Developmental Disabilities: Warren Hill Case a Major Disappointment
By Taylor Terrell

MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) - The head of the Georgia Council on Developmental Disabilities (GCDD) is speaking out about the pending case of convicted murderer Warren Lee Hill.

Hill has been on death row in Georgia since the early 90's, but his execution has been put on hold several times.

This morning, the United States Supreme Court ruled not to hear Hill's latest appeal.

Hill was sentenced to death more than 20 years ago, after he murdered his cell mate while serving jail time for killing his girlfriend.

Executive Director of the Disability Council, Eric Jacobson says the Supreme Court is failing to protect the nation's most vulnerable citizens.

"He had a job, he had a wife, he had been in the Navy, and what we didn't understand at that time was that people could carry on with those kinds of activities and still have an intellectual disability," says Jacobson. "So, now those doctors have come back and said...if this case came up today, they would have said he has an intellectual disability and he would have not been in line for execution."

Jacobson adds he is disappointed in the Supreme Court "to uphold the protection for some of our nation's most vulnerable citizens."

"It's completely untenable that Warren Hill could now be put to death basically on a technicality because the courts won't acknowledge a mistake was made and rectify the situation. As a disability community, we will continue to push to get the "beyond a reasonable doubt" language changed in Georgia. This must not happen again," says Jacobson.

According to Jacobson, Georgia is the only state in the nation, which executes people who with developmental disabilities who committed crimes.

A separate appeal over Hill's death is pending in the Georgia Supreme Court.

That appeal is over the state's lethal injection drugs.