Justices allow Texas’ execution of Billy Wardlow to proceed

This evening the Supreme Court refused to block the execution of Billy Wardlow, scheduled for 7 p.m. EDT in Texas. Wardlow was sentenced to death row for the 1993 fatal shooting of 82-year-old Carl Cole during a botched robbery. Wardlow, who was 18 years old at the time of the crime, said he and his girlfriend were trying to escape their abusive families. Wardlow’s attorneys, joined by neuroscience and neuropsychology experts in an amicus brief, sought emergency relief at the Supreme Court, arguing that there is no reliable way to predict future dangerousness of a violent offender under the age of 21. Texas argued that Wardlow failed to show any constitutional problem with the jury’s finding of future dangerousness and that he was not entitled to relief from the Supreme Court for procedural reasons. There were no recorded dissents from the court’s decision to allow the execution to proceed.