The Georgia Supreme Court on Monday evening stayed the execution of a death row inmate whose IQ of 70 falls within the range of mental retardation, the man's lawyer confirmed to USA TODAY.
"I'm just thrilled," Brian Kammer, lawyer for inmate Warren Lee Hill, said in a phone interview. "It was getting down to the wire."
Hill was slated to die by lethal injection at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson, Ga., but the death scheduled for 7 p.m. ET Monday marked a delay of a few days called for by the Georgia Department of Corrections because the state was changing to protocol for its lethal injection cocktail.
The court wants to make sure this change complies with state law, Kammer tells USA TODAY.
The court also rejected Hill's request to stay the execution on a mental disability claim.
Hill, 52, was convicted in the death of his prison cellmate, who he beat to death with a wooden board imbedded with nails back in 1990. At the time, Hill was serving time for the death of his girlfriend, who he shot 11 times.
Kammer said litigation on the new issue could take months.
