By Scott Harvey
Huntsville – Larry Wooten is set for execution Thursday night in the Texas death chamber in Huntsville for the 1996 murders of an elderly Paris couple.
Wooten formerly worked odd jobs for 80-year-old Grady Alexander and his 86-year-old wife, Bessie.
Although he's has maintained his innocence, DNA evidence helped convict Wooten, including his blood found in the kitchen floor of the Alexanders' home.
He's also claimed mental retardation, but Prosecutor Kerye Ashmore says that won't hold.
"In looking at whether a person's retarded or not, you consider not only their IQ but their ability to live independently," Ashmore said. "The defendant has worked outside the home, he's been employed and self sufficient."
Prosecutors say Wooten robbed the couple, taking their $500 in savings so he could buy cocaine.
The 51-year-old would be the 17th inmate executed this year in the nation's most active death penalty state.