By Justices refuse to overturn death sentence in Troy homicide case
Montgomery, AL – - The U-S Supreme Court has upheld the death
sentence of a mentally impaired Alabama man who killed his former
lover.
The court on Wednesday in a 7-2 vote refused to overturn the
death sentence of Holly Wood. He was convicted in the shooting
death of his former girlfriend, Ruby Lois Gosha, in 1993. She was
killed by a shotgun blast to her head as she slept in her home in
Troy, Ala.
A federal judge tossed out the death sentence because his lawyer
failed to tell jurors that Wood has an IQ of less than 70 and had
been classified as mentally retarded. But the 11th U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals reinstated the death sentence, and the Supreme
Court affirmed that decision.