Texas man who killed girl executed; attorneys said he should have been spared due to low IQ

Texas executes killer of 11-year-old girl

HUNTSVILLE, Texas — A 44-year-old Texas man has been executed for raping and murdering an 11-year-old girl, despite his attorneys’ pleas that he was too mentally impaired to qualify for capital punishment.

Bobby Wayne Woods received lethal injection Thursday evening moments after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to halt his execution. His lawyers had argued Woods was mentally impaired, making him ineligible for execution, and that previous appeals to spare Woods’ life were unsuccessful because of shoddy work by his lawyer at the time.

Woods was convicted of killing Sarah Patterson. She and her 9-year-old brother were snatched from their home near Fort Worth in April 1997. Her brother was beaten and left for dead but survived to testify against Woods.