ST. LOUIS (AP) – Missouri is preparing to execute Paul Goodwin for killing a neighbor woman with a hammer. It would be the state’s 10th execution this year.

Goodwin is scheduled to die by injection at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday at the state prison in Bonne Terre. His attorney has filed court appeals and a clemency petition to Gov. Jay Nixon, claiming Goodwin is mentally disabled.

Missouri’s nine executions so far tie the record set in 1999. Only Texas, with 10, has performed more executions this year.

Goodwin is 48. He sexually assaulted and killed Joan Crotts, a 63-year-old widow, in St. Louis County in 1998.