Dec. 2 (UPI) -- Attorneys for a man convicted of killing his 2-year-old daughter in 2002 asked the Supreme Court on Wednesday to stay his execution, citing intellectual disability.
Alfred Bourgeois, 55, is scheduled to be executed Dec. 11 at the U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Ind.
In a Supreme Court filing Wednesday, his attorneys said his execution would be unconstitutional because he is intellectually disabled and therefore can't understand his punishment. They submitted evidence of IQ test scores of 70 and 75, as well as assessments by experts.
The Eighth Amendment bans executing people with such impairments as cruel and usual punishment.
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The request for a stay comes one day after the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Bourgeois' application for a stay and denied his petition for a rehearing.
Bourgeois was among the first inmates slated for death last year when Attorney General William Barr announced the resumption of federal executions after a 17-year hiatus. A federal judge stayed his execution in March, saying his lawyer made a strong case for his intellectual disability.
Bourgeois was convicted in 2004 of capital murder for the 2002 death of his daughter in Corpus Christi, Texas. Prosecutors said the girl died when Bourgeois became angry with her for turning over her potty training chair in the cab of his 18-wheeler and slammed her head into the vehicle's window.
Investigators said he regularly physically and sexually abused the toddler before her death.
Bourgeois said he was innocent of the child's death and blamed her mother.
