Less than an hour before Warren Hill was scheduled to die by lethal injection, he was granted not one, but two stays of execution.
Attorney Brian Kammer says he client was shocked to learn the news.
 
“I would say that he sounded very anxious,” he tells WSB’s Sandra Parrish. “I think it has been extremely traumatizing for Mr. Hill.”
 
The Georgia Court of Appeals has granted an appeal over the dispensation of the lethal drug used by the Georgia Diagnostic Prison and State Department of Corrections.
 
The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has also ordered further briefing on Hill's mental retardation, according to Kammer.
 
“I’m extremely relieved at the moment that the courts have recognized that we have serious issues surrounding this potential execution and, in particular, the execution of someone who has been found mentally retarded by every expert who’s ever examined him,” he says.
 
As to the amount of time granted by the stays, Kammer says there’s no way of knowing at this point.
 
“We don’t know what the coming week will bring... I don’t know that we’re completely out of the woods, but I’m hopeful,” he says.