A man whose lawyers say is clinically "mentally retarded" is set to be put to death by lethal injection in Texas.<br /><br />Marvin Wilson was convicted of fatally shooting a police drug informant nearly 20 years ago, with the sentence of death by lethal injection.<br /><br />The US Supreme Court soon afterwards found the penalty to be in violation of the constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment when imposed on the mentally retarded.<br /><br />Commenting on the case, Simon Whitaker, a clinical psychologist from the UK, told Al Jazeera: "This is a miscarriage of justice, he [Wilson] would have the same reasoning powers of a five-year-old child, if a five-year-old child killed someone we would not execute them in part.<br /><br />"Texas courts have judged Wilson as not mentally retarded - even though psychologists measured his IQ in the bottom one percentile, about equal to that of an average five-year-old child.<br /><br />"With his diagnosis he cannot make rational decisions, there will be a clear problem for him to think things through," said Whitaker.<br /><br />Texas is one of 33 states, along with the federal government, which still maintains the death penalty, which still has widespread support.<br /><br />A recent poll indicated more than 70 per cent of Texans approve of capital punishment for murder.
