Despite consistently testing as mentally disabled, Holly was convicted and sentenced to death in 1993 for killing his former girlfriend, Ruby Gosha. His court- appointed lawyer had less than a year of trial experience and failed to explain to jurors that he was not mentally competent to be executed.
The US Supreme Court banned the execution of the mentally disabled eight years ago, declaring “the lesser culpability of the mentally retarded offender surely does not merit that form of retribution”.
Although Holly had an IQ of below 70, which classifies him as mentally disabled, he also held down a job and subscribed to a car magazine. The State argued that these two facts showed he was mentally competent, and therefore fit to be executed despite his official test results.
Ruby Gosha’s murder was a terrible waste of life. But executing a man like Holly is also tragic, and runs counter to US law seeking to protect the mentally disabled from such a fate.
2010-09-22
Reprieve—Alabama executes mentally disabled man Holly Wood
via reprieve.org.uk
