![\"\"](\"http:\/\/change-production.s3.amazonaws.com\/photos\/wordpress_copies\/criminaljustice\/2009\/11\/woods_bobby.jpg\" "\\"Texas")
Bobby Woods is scheduled to be executed in Texas on Thursday. This is the case despite two important facts:<\/p>\n Bobby Woods is scheduled to be executed in Texas on Thursday. This is the case despite two important facts:<\/p>\n
— His IQ hovers at or below 70 — the accepted border of mental impairment.<\/p>\n
— The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2002<\/a> that it is unconstitutional to execute someone with a mental disability.<\/p>\n Woods was sentenced to death for his role in the rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl. He disputes the facts, saying his cousin killed the girl. But the facts are beside the point now. Why is Texas ignoring the clear directive of the Supreme Court?<\/p>\n Woods was represented for years by an incompetent attorney, appointed by the state, who squandered any chance of Woods seeking to fight his sentence based on his mental disability. His new attorney is seeking clemency from Gov. Rick Perry. But we know how Perry handles these things<\/a>.<\/p>\n Woods’ new attorney Maurie Levin is fighting for her client’s life with every tool available.<\/p>\n “For the state of Texas to appoint a lawyer who they then removed from the list \u2014 who was being taken to task in a federal court at the very same time he’s being appointed to represent Bobby in his federal proceedings, and then for Bobby \u2014 a mentally retarded man \u2014\u00a0to suffer the consequences of that appointment is atrocious. It infuriates me,” she told the Texas Observer this week<\/a>.<\/p>\n Levin is trying to get the Texas Board of Pardon and Paroles to watch a video of Woods speaking so they can see the capacity of the man the state is planning to execute. Watch the video after the jump.<\/p>\n