Marvin Lee Wilson (January 5, 1958 – August 7, 2012) was executed by the State of

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

on August 7, 2012, despite experts finding his IQ was 61. Supreme Court rulings subsequent to his execution in 2014 (Hall v. Florida) and 2017 (Moore v. Texas) ruled that the Eighth Amendment protected people with this low of an IQ from being executed under the discretion some states, including Texas, were using at the time. Texas successfully used crime allegation specifics to argue against the expert IQ, but the states are no longer allowed to do that. He entered

death row Death row, also known as condemned row, is a place in a prison that houses inmates awaiting execution after being convicted of a capital crime and sentenced to death. The term is also used figuratively to describe the state of awaiting executio ...

on May 9, 1994,Offenders on Death Row
and linked pag
Marvin Lee Wilson
Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Accessed online 2012-08-08. for the murder of a police drug informant who had caught him dealing cocaine. On November 10, 1992, Wilson abducted and shot 21-year-old Jerry Robert Williams following a physical confrontation between the two in the 1500 block of Verone in Beaumont. Wilson then left the body of Williams at a bus stop where it was later found by a bus driver. At the time of the murder, Wilson had two previous convictions for robbery, one of them aggravated. Wilson's IQ has been claimed to be measured at 61, which meant that he was legally retarded and thus ineligible for execution according to

Atkins v. Virginia ''Atkins v. Virginia'', 536 U.S. 304 (2002), is a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States ruled 6–3 that executing people with intellectual disabilities violates the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishments, but th ...

- a

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that turn on question ...

ruling against execution of retarded individuals.Adam Liptak
Date Missed, Court Rebuffs Low-I.Q. Man Facing Death
''New York Times'', 2005-12-17. Accessed online 2010-01-25.Clay Robison

''Houston Chronicle''/chron. com, 2005-12-17. Accessed online 2010-01-25. However, the

United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (in case citations, 5th Cir.) is one of the 13 United States courts of appeals. It has appellate jurisdiction over the U.S. district courts in the following federal judicial districts: ...

originally ruled in December 2005 that due to his lawyer missing a filing deadline, Wilson was unable to file further appeals in federal court. On March 10, 2006, the Fifth Circuit court granted Wilson permission to file an appeal. In its opinion, the court wrote, "We are satisfied that these are the sort of rare and extraordinary circumstances that justify" waiving the filing deadline. The

National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty The National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (NCADP) is an organization dedicated to the abolition of the death penalty in the United States. Founded in 1976 (the same year the death penalty was reinstated by the Supreme Court of the United ...

states that "Wilson’s case illustrates one of the many ways the AEDPA

Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act The Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA), , was introduced to the United States Congress in April 1995 as a Senate Bill (). The bill was passed with broad bipartisan support by Congress in response to the bombings of th ...

has severely limited the ability of death row inmates to have their convictions and sentences reviewed to determine if they are being held contrary to the laws of the

Constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organization or other type of entity, and commonly determines how that entity is to be governed. When these pri ...

." He was imprisoned as

Texas Department of Criminal Justice The Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) is a department of the government of the U.S. state of Texas. The TDCJ is responsible for statewide criminal justice for adult offenders, including managing offenders in state prisons, state jails ...

(TDCJ) inmate #00999098. Wilson was initially located in the

Ellis Unit O. B. Ellis Unit (E1, previously Ellis I Unit) is a Texas Department of Criminal Justice prison located in unincorporated area, unincorporated Walker County, Texas, north of Huntsville, Texas, Huntsville. The unit, with about of space,‌ now h ...

, but was transferred to the

Allan B. Polunsky Unit Allan B. Polunsky Unit (TL, formerly the Terrell Unit) is a prison in West Livingston, unincorporated Polk County, Texas, United States, located approximately southwest of Livingston along Farm to Market Road 350. - Note the 2010 U.S. C ...

(formerly the Terrell Unit) near Livingston, Texas in 1999.Death Row Facts
"

. Retrieved on February 4, 2016. He was executed at

Huntsville Unit Texas State Penitentiary at Huntsville or Huntsville Unit (HV), nicknamed "Walls Unit", is a Texas state prison located in Huntsville, Texas, United States. The approximately facility, near downtown Huntsville, is operated by the Correctional Ins ...

, Huntsville, Texas.

References

External links

Guardian articleNeuropsychological Report
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson, Marvin 1958 births 2012 deaths 1992 murders in the United States American people convicted of robbery People convicted of murder by Texas People executed by Texas by lethal injection 21st-century executions by Texas 21st-century executions of American people American people executed for murder

See also

References

External links