Milton Mathis, Convicted Killer, Executed In Texas Despite Evidence Of Retardation

A man convicted of slaying two people and critically injuring a third in a drug house shooting was executed on Tuesday evening by Texas officials, despite evidence that he suffered from mental retardation.

Milton Mathis, 32, was sentenced to death in 1999, three years before the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that execution of the mentally retarded violated the Constitution's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. Intelligence tests, including one given by the Texas Department of Corrections in 2000, measured Mathis's IQ in the low 60s, well below the threshold for mild mental retardation as recognized by almost all states. In 2005, however, a Texas court rejected his claims of mental impairment, siding with prosecutors who characterized Mathis as a "street smart" criminal whose behavior indicated near-normal intelligence. Federal and