Planned execution of Ga. inmate temporarily halted by judge over lethal injection issues

7/15/2013

ATLANTA — A judge has temporarily stayed a Georgia inmate’s scheduled execution today, after attorneys raised questions involving the state’s supply of execution drugs.

A lawyer for Warren Lee Hill said the judge planned a hearing Thursday.

It wasn’t the first time Hill’s scheduled execution has been halted by a challenge to Georgia’s execution method. Last July, a previous execution date was put on hold by an earlier challenge to the state’s plan to change from a three-drug injection to a single dose of pentobarbital.

The state Supreme Court later authorized the execution to proceed, though it was halted again so courts could consider claims Hill is mentally disabled. That stay was lifted in April and the execution rescheduled for today.

Hill was condemned for the killing of another inmate in 1990.