Texas inmate set to be executed for killing woman in 2010

A Texas inmate was set to be executed Tuesday evening for fatally shooting a 61-year-old grandmother at her North Texas home nearly a decade ago during an eight-day spate of crimes that included thefts and another killing.

Mark Anthony Soliz, 37, faced lethal injection for the June 2010 slaying of Nancy Weatherly during a robbery at her rural home near Godley, located 30 miles (48 kilometers) southwest of Fort Worth.

State and federal appeals courts and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles have turned down requests by Soliz's attorneys to stop his execution, with the most recent denial coming on Monday. His lawyers say no other appeals, including to the U.S. Supreme Court, are planned.

Soliz's lawyers had argued he suffers from fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, which left him with brain damage. His attorneys said the disorder is the "functional equivalent" of conditions already recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court as disqualifying exemptions to the death penalty, such as intellectual disability.

"Our argument (was) the Supreme Court is extending that doctrine to fetal alcohol syndrome," said Seth Kretzer, one of Soliz's appellate attorneys.

Prosecutors portrayed Soliz as a dangerous individual who killed Weatherly for a "pittance of property."
The attorney general's office said in its motion with the 5th U.S. Circuit of Appeals that a Fort Worth police detective testified Soliz was "more sophisticated, calculated, and dangerous" than his partner Ramos and that