Court upholds death sentence for Alabama man

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The 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.

-- Associated Press