Warren Lee Hill Jr. was born on June 28, 1960, in Georgia. As a teenager, he rose to the rank of Seaman Second Class in the U.S. Navy after graduating high school. He was seen by friends and family as “bright,” “sharp,” and “mature,” and took on adult responsibilities early, often supporting his family. 

On May 30, 1985, Hill shot his girlfriend 11 times. She died at the scene. The crime was immediate and violent, earning Hill a life sentence .

On August 17, 1990, while serving life at Lee Correctional Institution, Hill used a 2×6 board—sawed off from a bathroom sink support and filled with nails—to bludgeon his cellmate, 34-year-old Joseph Handspike, to death. A guard arrived around 5:10 AM to find Hill striking Handspike “like chopping wood with an axe.” Handspike suffered multiple blunt trauma injuries, including loss of teeth and a detached eye, and died about an hour later in hospital

Hill was arrested on the spot and charged with malice murder, felony murder, and aggravated assault. In July 1991, a jury convicted him and recommended death by lethal injection on August 2, 1991. He pursued multiple appeals over the next two decades, focusing on claims of intellectual disability under the Eighth Amendment, but Georgia upheld the death sentence. 

On January 27, 2015, Hill was executed at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson. He was pronounced dead at 7:55 PM local time, despite widespread controversy over his mental capabilities.