(Washington) Texas on Wednesday executed a 60-year-old man sentenced to death for the murder of his own mother, despite appeals from his lawyers, who said he suffered from intellectual disabilities.
Updated yesterday at 9:08 p.m.
Tracy Beatty, 61, received a lethal injection at Huntsville Penitentiary in the southern United States.
He was pronounced dead at 6:39 p.m. (0039 GMT Thursday).
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Tracy Beatty
He was sentenced to death in 2004 for strangling his 62-year-old mother a year earlier.
Fresh out of prison after serving sentences for theft and violence, he had been hosted at her home, despite their “conflicting relationship”, according to court documents.
When she asked him to leave, he strangled her, beat her up and buried her body.
As the date set for his execution approached, his lawyers filed final appeals to try to save him on the grounds that he suffers from intellectual disabilities.
The United States Supreme Court has found it unconstitutional to execute convicts unable to understand their sentence.
Last month, two doctors met him, but they claim not to have been able to carry out a conclusive expertise, because the prison authorities refused to remove his handcuffs.
Tracy Beatty is the 13e sentenced to death executed since the beginning of the year in the United States and on 4e in Texas.