R.I.P. Gayland Bradford

Roman Colosseum lit to protest an execution

On June 1, 2011, Texas executed Gayland Bradford for the 1988 killing of Brian Williams, a Dallas food store security guard.

Bradford's lawyers unsuccessfully sought to stop the execution because Bradford, with an I.Q. of 68, has an intellectual disability that makes him ineligible for the death penalty.

This is the 20th execution in the United States in 2011, the fourth in Texas.  Bradford is the 10th African American to be executed this year.  According to the Death Penalty Information Center, four times as many people have been executed in Texas than in any other state since the death penalty was reinstated in the United States in 1976