AUSTIN, Texas, Aug. 19 (UPI) -- Controversy may not halt Wednesday's scheduled Texas execution of a man sentenced under an unconstitutional procedure.
Mark Robertson is one of several Texas death row prisoners sentenced between 1989 and 1991 by juries under a procedure the U.S. Supreme Court later held to be unconstitutional.
Death penalty opponents claim a federal appeals court that upheld Robertson's execution isn't following the Supreme Court decision.
The New York Times said until 1989, Texas juries were asked only two questions: Was the killing deliberate? Does the defendant pose a danger to others? If juries answered yes to both, a death sentence was mandatory.
But in 1989 the Supreme Court ruled the procedure unconstitutional since it didn't allow consideration of such mitigating factors as mental retardation or child abuse. Texas lawmakers didn't revise the law until 1991.
In the meantime, Texas judges retained the two questions and the appeals court rejected most challenges, ruling the Supreme Court decision doesn't apply to evidence it calls self-inflicted, such as substance abuse.
About 20 men sentenced to death in Texas under the old law are awaiting execution. Another 18 have already been put to death.
