Law & order

The state of Texas executed Robert Ladd on Thursday via lethal injection, after the Supreme Court rejected arguments from the American Civil liberties Union (ACLU) that he was mentally impaired and ineligible for the death penalty.

The ACLU contended Ladd’s intellectual disability was well-established. In 1970, at the age of 13, he was described as “fairly obviously retarded” by the Texas Youth Commission, and three interviews with a psychiatrist confirmed the diagnosis. However, the Texas state assistant attorney general, Kelli Weaver, said courts had already rejected the idea that Ladd’s disability was grounds to spare him the death penalty, despite his IQ of 67.

Texas executes man despite intellectual disability, IQ of 67