Woods also received a 40-year sentence for the abduction of Patterson's younger brother, whom he beat unconscious and left for dead but who survived.

A seventh-grade dropout, Woods was so illiterate that he had to refer to a spelling list just to write simple notes to his family.

In response, a psychiatrist representing prosecution testified that Woods was not mentally retarded and could commit future violent crimes.

[2] Woods was executed at 6:48 p.m. local time on December 3, 2009, in the Huntsville Unit state prison.

[2] He was the 50th murderer executed in the U.S. in 2009 and 1,186th since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled capital punishment constitutional in the 1976 case Gregg v. Georgia.