Texas executes man convicted of killing mother nearly 20 years ago

The US state of Texas on Wednesday executed a man convicted of killing his mother nearly two decades ago, officials said.

Tracy Beatty, 61, was pronounced dead at 6:39 pm local time at a prison in the city of Huntsville, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice said.

Beatty was sentenced to death in 2004 for having strangled his 62-year-old mother, Carolyn Click, a year earlier.

Beatty had been released from prison after serving sentences for robbery and assault and had been staying with his mother despite their "volatile and combative relationship," according to court documents.

She had asked him to move out before he beat and strangled her to death during a fight.

As Beatty's execution date approached, his lawyers filed final appeals to try to save him on the grounds that he was intellectually impaired.

Last month, two doctors met with him, but they say they were unable to conduct a conclusive examination because prison authorities refused to remove his handcuffs.

The US Supreme Court has ruled that it is unconstitutional to execute convicts who are intellectually disabled and unable to understand their sentence. Beatty's lawyers had asked the top US court for a stay of execution.

But there was no intervention, and Beatty was put to death by lethal injection - the thirteenth death row inmate executed since the beginning of the year in the United States and the fourth in Texas.

© Agence France-Presse