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Thread: Jeffery Lee Wood - Texas Death Row

  1. #11
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    August 21, 2010

    HUNTSVILLE, Texas — A federal judge on Thursday delayed the execution of a condemned inmate so he can be tested to determine whether he's mentally competent to understand why he would be put to death.

    Jeffery Wood had been set to be executed Thursday for taking part in a 1996 robbery in the Texas Hill Country store in which a clerk was fatally shot.

    But U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia in San Antonio on Thursday granted a request by Wood's attorneys to delay his execution so they could hire a mental health expert to pursue their arguments that he is incompetent to be executed. Texas courts had previously refused similar appeals.

    Wood's "motion presents non-frivolous arguments suggesting (he) currently lacks a rational understanding of the connection between his role in his offense and the punishment imposed upon him," Garcia wrote in his 20-page order.

    While Garcia wrote that the evidence was far from compelling, there were enough facts to conclude Wood had made a "substantial threshold showing of insanity."

    Garcia wrote that his decision was based on the state trial court's refusal to afford Wood fundamental due process protections mandated by the U.S. Supreme Court's 2007 decision, which blocked the execution of a mentally ill Texas murderer because lower courts failed to consider whether he had a rational understanding of why he was to be killed.

    "We applaud the (court) for upholding Jeff Wood's rudimentary due process right to have his competency evaluated," said Andrea Keilen, executive director of Texas Defender Service, a legal group also representing Wood.

    The Texas Attorney General's Office, which argued Wood had failed to show he was incompetent to be executed, did not immediately return telephone calls seeking comment Thursday.

    Wood would have been the ninth condemned prisoner put to death this year and the fifth this month in the nation's busiest capital punishment state.

    Attorney Scott Sullivan said in a motion filed Tuesday that he met with Wood a month ago and Wood told him he believed the trial judge was corrupt but would accept a $100,000 bribe and then deport him to Norway where he could live with his wife. Sullivan said Wood also believed the government will pay him $50,000 a year once he's released and that he's willing to give that money to the judge.

    The U.S. Supreme Court has barred the execution of prisoners determined to be mentally disabled, but that protection has not extended to those with mental illness.

    Wood waited in a car outside a convenience store in Kerrville in January 1996 while his roommate fatally shot the clerk, Kriss Keeran, once in the face with a .22-caliber pistol.

    Both men then robbed the store, taking more than $11,000 in cash and checks.

    Evidence showed the pair had planned the robbery for a couple of weeks and unsuccessfully tried recruiting Keeran, 31, whom they knew, and another employee to stage a phony robbery at the Texaco gas station.

    But Wood's lawyers said his mental illness allowed him to be easily manipulated by his partner and roommate, Daniel Reneau, who they called "the principal actor" in the pre-dawn shooting. Reneau was executed in 2002.

    Wood, whose 35th birthday was Tuesday, was convicted under the Texas law of parties, which makes accomplices as liable as the actual killer in capital murder cases.

    At first, Wood was found by a jury to be mentally incompetent to stand trial. After a brief stint at a state hospital, a second jury found him competent.

    At his capital murder trial, he tried to fire his lawyers before the penalty phase. The trial judge denied the request but Wood's lawyers followed their client's wishes, called no witnesses and declined to cross-examine prosecution witnesses.

    The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles had refused to recommend that Gov. Rick Perry grant clemency to Wood, whose lawyers compared his case to another convicted Texas killer, Kenneth Foster. A year ago, Foster won a commutation from the parole board, Perry agreed and Foster now is serving a life sentence.

    Foster also was condemned under the law of parties, although Perry's explanation for commuting Foster was that Foster and his co-defendant were tried together on capital murder charges for a slaying in San Antonio.

    In Wood's case, he and Reneau were tried separately.

    At least a half dozen other Texas inmates have been executed under the law of parties.

    http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/5958363.html

  2. #12
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    Death row convict's lawyers argue he's incompetent

    A man convicted of participating in a fatal robbery in Kerrville is arguing he is mentally incompetent to be put to death.

    At a hearing that began Tuesday, lawyers for Jeffrey Lee Wood, 36, tried to convince U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia that Wood is too delusional to understand why he is to die. Wood believes, among other things, that he is the victim of a Freemason conspiracy and that bribing the trial judge would have fixed his problems, court records show.

    In 1998, Wood was convicted and sentenced to die for the murder of store clerk Kris Keeran under Texas' “law of parties,” which makes all who are involved in a felony, like robbery, subject to the death penalty if one of them commits murder in the course of it.

    On Jan. 2, 1996, Wood and Daniel Earl Reneau parked outside a gas station and Reneau entered, pointed a .22-caliber handgun at Keeran and fatally shot him when he did not respond fast enough to Reneau's orders, court records show.

    Hearing the gunshot, Wood entered the gas station and found the clerk on the floor behind the counter. The duo then took a safe, cash box and the surveillance videotape and Wood drove the getaway vehicle, records show.

    On the eve of Wood's execution in August 2008, Garcia issued him a stay, finding Wood had made bizarre statements at his trial and in prison that “at least arguably suggest the petitioner lacks a rational understanding of the causal link between his role in his criminal offense and the reason he has been sentenced to death.”

    Garcia said at the time that the Texas courts erred when they refused to hire mental health experts to determine whether Wood was insane or to appoint a lawyer to represent him at a competency hearing.

    The U.S. Supreme Court has held that it is unconstitutional to execute insane people who cannot understand why they are being put to death or that their execution is imminent.

    Wood's mental problems gave one jury reason to find him incompetent to stand trial. After spending time in a mental hospital, he was found competent by a second jury.

    Evidence of his mental troubles was never brought before the jury that imposed the death penalty because Wood, who once tried to represent himself, became angry and told his lawyers to do nothing during the penalty phase. They complied.

    A psychologist testified Tuesday that Wood does not believe his participation is what got him sent to death row. Instead, Wood believes an assistant district attorney out to make a name for herself and the trial judge are behind it and that if he had had enough money, he would have avoided “all this,” the psychologist testified.

    The hearing continues Wednesday, but Garcia may not rule immediately. Reneau was sentenced to die and was executed in 2002.

    The victim's father, Charles Keeran, has said he would like to see Wood live the rest of his life in prison instead of being executed, according to prior news reports.

    http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/loc...108526604.html

  3. #13
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    On June 15, 2011, Wood filed an appeal in the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit over the denial of his habeas petition in Federal District Court.

    http://dockets.justia.com/docket/cir.../ca5/11-70018/

  4. #14
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    Jeffery Wood v. William Stephens

    In today's opinions, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals GRANTED Wood's petition for a COA.
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  5. #15
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    On December 1, 2014, oral argument will be heard in Wood's appeal before the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

    http://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/clerk/ca...5C11-70018.htm

  6. #16
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    In today's opinions, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals AFFIRMED the DENIAL of Wood's habeas petition in Federal District Court.

    http://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions...11-70018.0.pdf

  7. #17
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    Woods' denial by the Fifth Circuit makes for nine Texas denials this month. I wonder whether that's a Fifth Circuit record.

  8. #18
    Senior Member CnCP Legend FFM's Avatar
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    What's more important is we're stacking up inmates that have exhausted all federal post-conviction relief efforts. The 5th Circuit is essentially the final arbiter after the denial of a COA or federal habeas relief, so contacting the local district attorney is a must after that is done. Sometimes the DA is indifferent to carrying out the sentence unless you flood their inboxes or telephone lines demanding that justice be served. In other words, I encourage all DP supporters here to contact them, even though the AG's office in Austin almost always does that, but it isn't always enough. It's up to the DA to get the ball rolling, and the trial court judge to set a death warrant to carry out the sentence.
    Last edited by FFM; 07-30-2015 at 02:01 PM.

  9. #19
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    On September 3, 2015, the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit DENIED Wood's petition for en banc rehearing.

    http://www.supremecourt.gov/Search.a...es\15-7292.htm

  10. #20
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    In today's United States Supreme Court orders, Wood's petition for writ of certiorari and motion for leave to proceed in forma pauperis was DENIED.

    http://www.supremecourt.gov/orders/c...16zor_7lho.pdf

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