Good For Texas

From the LA Times:  A Texas inmate who had been described as intellectually disabled by civil rights advocates was put to death Thursday, officials said.
Robert Ladd, 57, was pronounced dead at 7:02 p.m. at Texas State Penitentiary in Huntsville, according to a spokeswoman for the state Department of Criminal Justice.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday denied his attorney's request for a stay of execution.     

Ladd was convicted of killing Vicki Ann Garner of Tyler, Texas, in 1996, beating her with a hammer, robbing her and setting her body on fire, correctional records say....

Ladd had an IQ of 67, and his pending execution had drawn stark criticism from civil rights advocates.

 

"Texas aggressively pursued Mr. Ladd's execution, despite the fact that our constitution categorically prohibits the use of capital punishment against persons with intellectual disability," Brian Stull, a senior staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement. "Mr. Ladd, whose IQ was 67, was executed because Texas uses idiosyncratic standards, based on stereotypes rather than science, to determine intellectual disability."
http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-texas-executes-robert-ladd-iq-67-20150129-story.html
I am a special education teacher and my specialty is intellectual disabilities, so I know a little about this situation.
To be classified as a person who has an intellectual disability, you have to have a low IQ, generally below 70 AND testing to show that a person has low self help and social skills.
You can have an IQ of 67 and not have an intellectual disability because the person is able to self sufficient, hold a job, live by themselves and other evidence that they can function in society.
So, there is a good chance that this murderous thug may have had borderline mental retardation but still functioned in society.
And it is possible that if the thug answered 1 or 2 questions correctly, he would have an IQ above 67.  He also could have purposefully answered some question wrong so he would be classified as having a intellectual disability.
So, good for Texas to rid society of this murderous thug and not back down to the anti-death penalty crowd.