In brief: Execution stayed for disability ruling

JACKSON, Ga. – The execution of a Georgia man who killed a fellow prisoner in 1990 was halted Tuesday at the last minute so courts could consider claims that he’s mentally disabled and other issues.

The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted its stay of execution as 52-year-old Warren Lee Hill was being prepared for lethal injection. In a 2-1 decision, a panel of the appeals court said further review is needed of recent affidavits by doctors who changed their minds about Hill’s mental capacity.

The state court of appeals also issued a stay to allow more time to consider a challenge related to the state’s lethal injection procedure.

Hill was sentenced to die for the 1990 beating death of fellow inmate Joseph Handspike. Authorities say he used a board studded with nails to bludgeon Handspike while he slept and other prisoners pleaded with Hill to stop. At the time Hill was already serving a life sentence for murder in the 1986 slaying of his girlfriend, Myra Wright, who had been shot 11 times.

Stanford first school to raise $1 billion

SAN FRANCISCO – Stanford University has set a record in college fundraising, becoming the first school to collect more than $1 billion in a single year.

For the eighth straight year, Stanford ranked first in the Council for Aid to Education’s annual college fundraising survey, which was released today.

The report found roughly 3,500 U.S. colleges and universities raised $31 billion in the 2012 fiscal year. That’s 2.3 percent more than the previous year but just below the 2008 record of $31.6 billion.

Topping the list was Stanford at $1.035 billion, followed by Harvard University at $650 million, Yale University at $544 million, the University of Southern California at $492 million and Columbia University at $490 million.

Body discovered in hotel water tank

LOS ANGELES – A Canadian woman who was last seen at a downtown Los Angeles hotel almost three weeks ago was believed to have been found dead Tuesday in a water tank at the top of the building, authorities said.

A worker at the Cecil Hotel on Main Street discovered the body – believed to be that of Elisa Lam, 21 – about 10 a.m. while responding to a complaint about low water pressure, sources said.

Police said the body had not officially been identified. That will be done by the Los Angeles County Coroner’s office.

Her body was found in one of four tanks that make up the water supply for the hotel.

Lam, of Vancouver, British Columbia, arrived in Los Angeles on Jan. 26 and was last seen Jan. 31 at the Cecil Hotel, police said.