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Hours before execution, Robert Holsey takes IQ appeal to SCOTUS

Georgia's high court denied Holsey's request for a stay as the clock ticked down to his 7 p.m. execution for the 1995 murder of sheriff's deputy Will Robinson.
A view of a death chamber on Aug. 29, 2001. (Mike Simons/Getty)
A view of a death chamber on Aug. 29, 2001.

A death-row inmate hours away from a lethal injection is appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court, after lower courts rejected his arguments that an intellectual disability and the fact that his trial lawyer was an alcoholic mean he should get a reprieve. Georgia's high court denied Robert Wayne Holsey's request for a stay on Tuesday afternoon as the clock ticked down to his 7 p.m. execution for the 1995 murder of sheriff's deputy Will Robinson.

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"Robert Wayne Holsey is an intellectually disabled African-American man who was represented at trial by a chronic alcoholic who was more concerned about avoiding his own criminal prosecution than defending his client against the death penalty," said his current lawyer, Brian Kammer.

Read more at NBCNews.com