USA - Texas. Milton Mathis, 32, black, was executed, despite claims that he was mentally disabled

Milton Mathis, 32, black, was executed, despite claims that he was mentally disabled. Mathis was convicted in September 1999 of opening fire on a home and killing Travis Brown and Daniel Hibbard and wounding two others. Most U.S. inmates with mental disabilities have been spared execution since the Supreme Court in 2002 declared it unconstitutional, said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Washington-based Death Penalty Information Center, which tracks capital punishment cases. Those who have been executed were usually cases in which the inmate's claim of mental disability was in dispute, including the Mathis case, he said. "People have been removed from Death Row whose convictions preceded the Supreme Court, but disputed cases sometimes go down to the wire and even go to execution, even with the claim" of mental disabilities, he said. After the ruling, the Supreme Court told states to come up with their own methods of determining if a person is mentally disabled, and about half of them have passed laws defining it for capital cases, Dieter said. Texas is not one of them. Mathis, who had an eighth-grade education when he was convicted, has scored in the low 60s on several IQ tests -- including a 62 on a test administered by the state's prison system. Psychology experts have routinely put the standard for mental disabilities around a 70 IQ and lower. Texas has a particularly high burden of proof for mental disability. It takes more than IQ tests. Attorneys also have to prove that the inmate had disabilities before age 18, and that he or she has shown a deficit in adaptive skills, such as reading and writing and following directions. Mathis becomes the 6th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Texas and the 470th overall since the state resumed capital punishment on December 7, 1982. Mathis becomes the 23th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1257th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977.