BEAUMONT - Attorneys for a convicted Southeast Texas killer facing execution want the U.S. Supreme Court to stop this week's scheduled punishment.
Lawyers for 54-year-old Marvin Lee Wilson are asking the high court to reverse rulings from other courts that have refused to halt the execution despite a psychological test that put Wilson's IQ at 61. That's a score they insist indicates mental impairment and makes Wilson ineligible for execution Tuesday evening in Huntsville for killing a police informant in Beaumont 20 years ago.
Wilson is scheduled to die August 7. He was convicted of capital murder in the 1992 death of Jerry Williams.
Investigators say Williams was a police informant. A beaumont city bus driver found his naked body near Irving Street in November of 1992.
He was shot in the head and neck.
Prosecutors say the victim was killed because Wilson and another man thought he had 'snitched' to police.
On July 2 a man testified before Criminal District Court Judge Larry Gist during a hearing in which the witness said Wilson didn't commit the murder.
Bennie Nettles testified that four years ago another man confessed to committing the crime, and told Nettles to wait until an execution date was set and then tell someone.
The man Nettles says confessed has since died of cancer.
Judge Gist left the August 7 execution date in place. He ruled it's not clear the outcome of Wilson's trial would have changed because of the new testimony.
Gist also ruled it's not clear Nettles' statements would have been admissable at trial. Attorneys for the state argue the result of the 2004 IQ test is faulty and that all other tests show Wilson's IQ is above the impairment threshold of 70.
(With assistance from AP)
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