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The execution by lethal injection is scheduled for 6 p.m. CST
at the state's death chamber in Huntsville.
If it goes ahead, Ladd would be the 520th person executed in
Texas since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty
in 1976, the most of any state. Nearly 40 percent of all the
executions in the United States in that time have taken place in
Texas.
Lawyers for Ladd have petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to halt
the execution, saying he is intellectually disabled with an IQ
of 67 and that executing him would be unconstitutional.
Ladd was convicted of sexually assaulting Vicki Garner, beating
and choking her to death, and then setting her body on fire. She
was found half naked with her legs and wrists bound by electric
cords, state officials said.
Ladd stole several items from the residence and exchanged them
for cocaine, the State Attorney General's Office said.
DNA evidence and a palm print found at the scene implicated Ladd
in the crime, it said.
Ladd won a last-minute appeal of an execution planned for April
2003 to give the courts more time to examine records indicating
he was mentally impaired.
Courts allowed the execution to be put on hold until 2013 when
his petition for a stay was struck down by a U.S. district
court.
(Reporting by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Peter Cooney)
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