On Tuesday, Texas executed Marvin Wilson by lethal injection, despite the fact that he had an IQ of 61. Using a set of bizarrely fashioned standards inspired by Lennie Small, the fictional migrant farmworker from Steinbeck's “Of Mice and Men,” Texas courts decided not to grant a stay on the execution, as they should have in accordance with the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2002 ruling in Atkins v. Virginia.
According to the Guardian, Wilson "smiled and raised his head from the death-chamber gurney, nodding to his three sisters and son as they watched through a window a few meters away." He then told them that he loved them, and said his last words:
"Y'all do understand that I came here a sinner and leaving a saint," he said. "Take me home, Jesus, take me home, Lord, take me home, Lord!"
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