Is Bobby Wayne Woods too Stupid to be Executed?

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It is Thursday, December 03, 2009, and as I write these words, Bobby Wayne Woods is alive. If you are reading this on December 4, 2009 or later, there is a strong likelihood that he will no longer be so, having been executed by the State of Texas for a grisly murder committed in 1997.

Amy Goodman and her cohohttp://newsrealblog.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/woodsbobby.jpgrts at Democracy Now! the voice of American Marxism, don’t think he should be executed. Are they convinced of his innocence? Hardly. The evidence against him is irrefutable. The fact is, those who are against capital punishment generally, and the execution of Woods in particular, have put forth the argument that Woods should be spared because he is “possibly retarded,” and the Supreme Court has forbidden executing mentally retarded prisoners, no matter how heinous the crime.


Here is Goodman on the pending execution:
DEMOCRACY NOW!: Texas Poised to Execute Possibly Retarded Prisoner

And the state of Texas is set to execute a man tonight who may be mentally retarded despite a 2002 Supreme Court ruling that bans the execution of mentally retarded prisoners. Test scores have shown the prisoner, Bobby Woods, has an IQ at or below seventy–– the cutoff point for mental retardation. In a recent interview with journalist Renee Feltz, Woods described how he has difficulty reading words with more than four letters.

Mr. Woods describes his difficulties with the written word:

Bobby Woods: They had these Western books [in the prison library]. A lot of the words ain’t—you know, most of the words ain’t past four. I mean, they got—you know, they have five and six letters, but most of them about four. I can read most of it, but then some I can’t read. I had to read it like maybe two or three times, then I finally understand it.