This article is from the archive of our partner .

The oddest thing about Tuesday night's execution of a convicted Texas murderer with an IQ below the generally accepted competency level was the role the work of John Steinbeck played in the debate around it. Lawyers for the 54-year-old Marvin Wilson, who was convicted of killing a police informant while he was out on bail from a cocaine arrest in 1992, had appealed for a stay of execution on the grounds that Wilson's IQ had been measured at 61, below the generally accepted minimum competency level of 70. On Tuesday night, their request was denied, and Wilson was administered lethal injection. He was declared dead at 6:27 p.m., local time.

Did Texas just execute a man with the mind of Lennie from Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men? That's part of the standard Texas's own judiciary uses to determine whether someone is competent to face execution. And John Steinbeck's son Thomas Steinbeck hates it. "Most Texas citizens might agree that Steinbeck's Lennie should, by virtue of his lack of reasoning ability and adaptive skills, be exempt," The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals wrote in 2004. "But, does a consensus of Texas citizens agree that all persons who might legitimately qualify for assistance under the social services definition of mental retardation be exempt from an otherwise constitutional penalty?"