Texas executes killer in 1998 double murder, despite claims of mental disability

(CBS/AP) HUNTSVILLE, Texas - The state of Texas executed a man Tuesday convicted of shooting two people to death inside a Houston drug house, despite possible evidence of the man having a mental disability.

Milton Mathis, 32, was executed by lethal injection shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected arguments that he was mentally impaired and, therefore, ineligible for execution.

A judge ruled after an earlier hearing in 2005 that Mathis wasn't mentally impaired. Conflicting IQ tests put his IQ as low as 62, eight points below the threshold considered by the courts to indicate mental impairment. Others had his overall IQ as high as 79.

State attorneys cited a federal appeals court ruling declaring it was a "mystery how Mathis could have scored 10-20 points higher on his IQ test before trial as compared to after his conviction."

According to Mathis' attorneys the low test results could have been the result of his heavy drug use, including PCP and "Fry," a marijuana cigarette soaked in embalming fluid laced with PCP, alcohol and codeine cough syrup.

Fred Felcman, the assistant district attorney who prosecuted Mathis said, "He's got a low IQ but he's very street savvy and very street smart."

The thirty-two year old was sentenced to death for the December 1998 crack house shooting spree that killed Travis Brown III, 24, and Daniel Hibbard, 31, as well as paralyzing then 15-year-old Melony Almaguer.

Almaguer and her husband were present to witness Mathis' execution where the condemned man told his victim that he hadn't intended to hurt her.

Mathis, strapped to a gurney with tubing taped to his arms, reportedly told Almaguer. "You were just at the wrong place at the wrong time."

Mathis claimed he shot Brown in self-defense because Brown had threatened to shoot him. And he said he panicked and opened fire on Hibbard and Almaguer. Testimony from the girl's mother showed that he also tried to shoot her but his gun was out of bullets.

He was pronounced dead at 6:53 p.m. Tuesday

Mathis was the sixth person executed in Texas this year.