From the New York Times Opinion Pages What do you think? Is this a national disgrace, or what?
Marvin Wilson, with an I.Q. of 61, is scheduled to be put to death in Texas on Tuesday. His execution would directly contradict the Supreme Court’s 2002 ruling in Atkins v. Virginia that “the mentally retarded should be categorically excluded from execution” because of “their disabilities in areas of reasoning, judgment and control of their impulses.” The court should accept Mr. Wilson’s case for review and end Texas’s illegal defiance of its explicit holding that the death penalty for the mentally retarded is unconstitutional.
Maybe it would be better to call it a Texas disgrace, since they are the most likely to partake in this travesty of justice.
What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.
