US to execute disabled inmate
Updated at 9:43 pm on 8 August 2012
The United States Supreme Court has refused to halt the scheduled execution of a Texas inmate who has been diagnosed as intellectually disabled.
A decade ago it banned executions of such people as cruel and unusual punishment.
Marvin Wilson, 54, had challenged his execution as unconstitutional under a ban on executing mentally retarded people although the rule gave States discretion in deciding who qualified for protection.
The defendant was convicted of murder for the November 1992 killing of a 21-year-old police drug informant, Jerry Robert Williams, and was sentenced to death in April 1994.
Copyright © 2012, Radio New Zealand
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