Today's Houston Chronicle reports, "Inmate's IQ becomes an issue in execution appeal." It's by Heather Nolan of the Beaumont Enterprise.
Convicted killer Marvin Lee Wilson, set to die Tuesday for a crime committed 20 years ago, said he often was teased about being illiterate when he was growing up in Beaumont.
"People, when they see that you is stupid, dumb and ignorant, they rather make fun of it and laugh about it, make you the laugh of the town, rather than say man, (he) needs some help," Wilson said during a recent interview on death row. "I spent my life fighting trying to defend my honor rather than trying to learn."
His IQ is at the heart of one appeal to his execution, and his attorneys on Tuesday plan to ask a state appeals court to review DNA found at the scene of the crime, where 21-year-old Jerry Robert Williams, a Beaumont Police Department confidential informant, was kidnapped and killed.
In his appeal already before the U.S. Supreme Court, attorney Lee Kovarsky asked justices to overrule lower courts' opinions that Wilson is not mentally retarded and therefore eligible for the death penalty.
The updated AP report is, "Low IQ score focus of Texas death row appeal," by Michael Graczyk.
Death row inmate Marvin Wilson spent his school years in special education classes, got failing or near failing grades and several times received "social promotions" to the next grade level until he finally quit school in the 10th grade.
Wilson's lawyers have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overrule state and lower federal courts that questioned the validity of a psychological test that pegged his IQ at 61, below the threshold of 70 that would suggest he's mentally impaired and thus, ineligible for capital punishment.
If Texas proceeds with Wilson's scheduled Tuesday execution in Huntsville, he "will own the grisly distinction" of becoming the lowest-IQ Texas prisoner put to death despite the Supreme Court ruling banning the execution of mentally impaired inmates, his lead attorney, University of Maryland law professor Lee Kovarsky, wrote in an the appeal.
"Texas set to execute mentally retarded man," is the UPI filing.
The Supreme Court, in 2002's Atkins vs. Virginia, banned the execution of the mentally retarded. But Texas uses its own process, called Briseno after a state court case, in which the "mildly retarded" can be executed.
In a petition to the Supreme Court, Wilson's lawyers argue using the Briseno process violates the high court ruling in Atkins.
Wilson's petition said a court-appointed neuropsychologist concluded the inmate was mentally retarded -- a conclusion that was never challenged.
"Mr. Wilson received a 61 on the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, Third Edition ('WAIS-III'), recognized as the gold standard of intellectual assessment," his petition said. "The WAIS-III measures verbal and non-verbal (performance) components, yielding a full-scale IQ ('FSIQ') score. Mr. Wilson's FSIQ places him below the first percentile of human intelligence."
Additional news coverage includes:
"Texas Set To Execute Marvin Wilson Despite Diagnosis Of ‘Mental Retardation’," by Joseph Orovic for International Business Times.
"Texas set to execute mentally retarded man," by Brett Wilkins at Digital Journal.
"Marvin Wilson, death row inmate diagnosed as 'mentally retarded,' to be executed," at Global Post.
Earlier coverage of Marvin Wilson's case begins with the preceding post.
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