In Alabama, man with IQ below 70 to be executed

From The NY Times:

A man whose lawyers contend he received inadequate legal counsel during sentencing and should have been classified as mentally retarded is scheduled to be executed Sept. 9.

In January, the United States Supreme Court upheld the death penalty for the man, Holly Wood, 50, who confessed to shooting his ex-girlfriend while she slept.

Defense lawyers argued that a court-appointed lawyer with less than a year of trial experience failed to tell jurors during sentencing that Mr. Wood is not mentally competent to be executed.

His I.Q. has been found to be well below 70, the score that experts often consider the border for mental retardation.

But Alabama, like many states, considers other factors, including performance tests and employment history in evaluating competence.