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Thread: Jeffery Lee Wood - Texas Death Row

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    Jeffery Lee Wood - Texas Death Row


    Jeffery Lee Wood


    Photo update of Jeffery Lee Wood


    Summary of Offense:

    On January 2, 1996, in Kerrville, Wood and co-defendant Daniel Reneau robbed a service station, murdering a male attendant in the process. Wood and the co-defendant took the store safe, a cash box and a VCR containing a security tape. The value of cash and checks was estimated to be $11,350.

    Wood was sentenced to death in Kerr County in March 1998.

    Daniel Reneau was executed on June 13, 2002: http://www.cncpunishment.com/forums/...s-June-13-2002

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    Background of the Case:

    Daniel Reneau was sentenced to death after he killed a gas station clerk in Kerr County. Reneau was 21 when he shot to death Kris Lee Keeran, 31, during the January 2, 1996 robbery at a Texaco station. In his appeal, Reneau said the circumstances of the crime did not constitute sufficient evidence that he posed a threat to society, as he only "killed one person with a single shot in the course of a robbery that was not well planned," according to court records. The state, however, argued that Reneau had participated in several burglaries in the weeks prior to the incident, including one in which he said he "would kill anyone that comes up." In addition, guards from Reneau's jail testified they overheard his plans for escape, in which he commented that he "wasn't afraid to take out a jailer, to take out a law enforcement official, but he was going to get out one way or another." Prosecutors said Reneau hatched the plan that also involved his roommate and culminated with the death of Kriss Keeran, 31, who knew both men.

    Evidence showed Reneau entered the store before dawn on January 2, 1996, and shot Keeran once in the face with a .22-caliber pistol. Then joined by roommate Jeffrey Wood, they robbed the store of more than $11,000 in cash and checks. Both were arrested within 24 hours. The U.S. Supreme Court this week refused to review Reneau's case. Asked on death row last week to identify the shooter, Reneau had a one-word reply: "Me." According to court records, Wood was waiting outside the store and came in after Keeran was shot, then both fled with the store safe, a cash box and a video recorder containing a security tape showing the robbery and slaying. "As I recall, he was pretty cold, very little emotion shown at any time," said Bruce Curry, the Kerr County district attorney who prosecuted Reneau. "And the method of this particular murder was cold -- just kind of walk up, shoot some guy in the head, walk on by, commit the robbery and leave."

    Evidence showed the pair had planned the robbery for a couple of weeks and unsuccessfully tried recruiting Keeran and another employee to stage a phony robbery. Reneau and Wood drove to Wood's parents home in Devine, about 65 miles to the south, where they tried to open the safe with a sledge hammer and a blow torch. When Wood's 16-year-old brother, Jonathan, asked them how they got the safe, Wood told him about the holdup and shooting. And when the brother expressed skepticism, Wood showed him the tape. Wood's brother testified he then was ordered to destroy the tape with the blow torch. Witnesses, including a delivery driver, described for police the pair of men seen at the store during the 6 a.m. robbery. They also had gone on a spending spree and an officer who had pulled them over the previous night remembered them, authorities said.

    Wood led police to the murder weapon, which Reneau said had been taken by Wood in an earlier burglary. "I ended up giving a confession," Reneau said from death row. He did not testify at his trial. "I don't think it would have made any difference," he said. A jury took 15 minutes before returning with its guilty verdict. Reneau said he thought at the time of the crime only treason or trying to kill the president or something similar would make one eligible for the death penalty. He thought Wood, for example, would end up with only about a five-year sentence. Wood joined him on death row. He does not yet have an execution date. "I don't feel like dying," Reneau said. "I don't want to die. But if it does happen, I accept it. I believe in a Christian God, but I won't really know until I die to find out." Reneau was born in Jacksonville, Fla., when his father was in the Army. He grew up in Kansas near Fort Riley, quit school in the 12th grade and worked construction jobs in Texas. He said Wood recently wrote him asking that he write a letter exonerating him in the crime. Reneau said he did not respond. Reneau and Wood were tied to several previous burglaries where several guns were taken although Reneau denied any participation. While in jail, authorities learned the 2 were working on a plan to break out by killing a jailer.

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    August 3, 2008

    Inmate's supporters appeal to governor

    Supporters of Texas inmate Jeffrey Wood, scheduled to die Aug. 21 for the 1996 murder of a Kerrville convenience store clerk, are hoping Gov. Rick Perry can see how similar Wood's case is to that of an inmate whose death sentence he commuted to life in prison last year.

    “It was the exact same thing,” said Wood's wife, Kristin. “He has faith, especially that the truth will come out eventually.”

    Jeffrey Wood and his former roommate Daniel Reneau were convicted of murdering Kris Keeran, a clerk at the Kerrville Gold Star Texaco.

    According to court testimony, Reneau held up the store . on Jan. 2, 1996, and shot Keeran after he refused to participate in a plan to stage a robbery and split the proceeds. Wood drove the getaway car. In a taped interview with a Kerrville police detective, Wood called Keeran “a real good friend.”

    Wood's defense team claimed he was unaware that a robbery, let alone murder, would occur.

    Kerr County Assistant District Attorney Lucy Wilke, formerly Lucy Cavazos, won a conviction against Wood under the law of parties statute, which makes someone who participates in an act that leads to homicide as culpable as the actual killer.

    In a letter sent in July to the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, Wilke wrote, “Mr. Wood was the mastermind of this senseless murder. It was Wood who showed his teenage brother the surveillance video tape depicting the murder, while laughing, and then ordered his brother to destroy the tape.”

    On Saturday, about 20 people gathered in front of the Alamo to rally for Wood's life, begging Perry for help.

    Last August, Perry commuted a death sentence to life in prison for inmate Kenneth Foster Jr., also convicted under the law of parties statute.

    “Jeff's case is so much like Kenneth's case; it is like a mirror image,” Lawrence Foster, grandfather of Kenneth Foster Jr., wrote in a statement read at the rally. “I remember thinking last summer that Texas had already executed the killer and yet they wanted Kenneth. It is the same for Jeff.”

    The cases are so similar that Norway native Kristin Wood, 29, has found comfort and support from the Foster camp, including from Foster's wife, Tasha, a 24-year-old Netherlands citizen.

    Wood's relatives staged the rally with the Texas Moratorium Network, which wants a two-year moratorium on all death penalty cases. A second rally for Wood is planned for Aug. 16 in Austin.

    Meanwhile, younger relatives have joined a group called Kids Against the Death Penalty.

    “I'm here because Jeff Wood is innocent and on death row for a murder that he didn't commit,” said Gavin Been, 11, Wood's nephew.

    According to the Texas Moratorium Network, attorney Jared Tyler with the Texas Defender Service is preparing a clemency package to submit on Wood's behalf.

    The victim's father, Charles Keeran, also would like to see Wood live.

    “The death penalty, to me, is the easy way out,” he said. “If you had to be down there and get up every morning, as hot and humid as it is, knowing that you are going to spend the rest of your life locked up under those conditions, that's punishment. That's what I think my son would want for him.”

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

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    August 18, 2010

    Media Advisory: Jeffery Lee Wood Scheduled For Execution

    AUSTIN – Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott offers the following information on Jeffery Lee Wood, who is scheduled to be executed after 6 p.m. Thursday, August 21, 2008.

    In March 1998, Wood was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death for the robbery and murder of Kriss Keeran, a service station clerk in Kerrville.

    FACTS OF THE CRIME

    Shortly after 6 a.m. on January 2, 1996, Danny Reneau walked into a Texaco station located near IH-10 in Kerrville and fatally shot store clerk Kriss Keeran with a .22 caliber pistol. Jeffery Lee Wood remained outside in a vehicle that Wood had borrowed from his brother. However, after the shooting, Wood entered the convenience store, and helped Reneau remove the store's safe, cash box, and the videotape recorder connected to the store's security camera.

    Afterwards, both men disposed of the murder weapon as they drove to the home of Wood’s parents in Devine.

    Upon their arrival at the Wood residence, Reneau and Wood unsuccessfully attempted to open the safe with a sledge-hammer. Ultimately, they withdrew a portion of the money from the safe through a slot in the bottom. Their efforts to sledge-hammer open the safe awoke Wood’s younger brother, Jonathan. Wood informed Jonathan that Reneau had shot someone to get the safe. Wood and Reneau then showed Jonathan the videotape of the fatal shooting of Keeran and the robbery of the store. At Wood’s direction, Jonathan destroyed the videotape with a blow torch. Jonathan Wood recalled at trial that the tape recording showed (1) Reneau walk into the store, point his pistol, and say something, (2) there was a shot, (3) “the dude” fell out of sight, (4) Reneau then went to the back of the store, and (5) the tape then cut off.

    Wood and Reneau were both arrested on January 2, 1996.

    Wood gave a statement to law enforcement officers, admitting that he heard the fatal shot and entered the store, where he observed Keeran bleeding behind the counter. Wood said that at Reneau's direction, he removed the store's VCR and carried it, along with the murder weapon, out to their vehicle while Reneau carried the store's safe and cash box. Wood also admitted that he knew Reneau was going to rob the store, and he anticipated that Reneau would shoot Keeran if the store clerk refused to cooperate.

    Wood led law enforcement officers to the murder weapon, a .22 caliber handgun, which was recovered from the Val Verde Creek bridge on Highway 173 South of Kerrville on January 3, 1996.

    PRIOR CRIMINAL HISTORY

    During the punishment phase of his trial, the State presented Wood’s hand-written confession, implicating him and Reneau in the armed robbery of a grocery store in Kerrville on November 30, 1995, slightly more than a month before Keeran's murder.

    The State also offered evidence of Wood’s bad behavior while confined in the Kerr County Jail awaiting trial. On December 29, 1996, Wood and Reneau were observed standing on the sinks in their respective cells talking to each other through an air vent about a possible escape attempt from the jail, and a subsequent car-jacking should they successfully escape. No escape attempt was ultimately made.

    The prosecution called Dr. James P. Grigson, who testified that, based upon a hypothetical involving the facts of this case, the person described would most certainly commit future acts of violence and represent a threat to society.

    PROCEDURAL HISTORY

    In March 1998, Wood was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death for the robbery and murder of Kriss Keeran. The conviction and sentence were affirmed by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. Wood’s conviction became final on August 22, 2000, when the time for filing a petition for writ of certiorari in the U.S. Supreme Court expired. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals subsequently denied state habeas corpus relief. A U.S. district court denied Wood’s federal petition for writ of habeas corpus, but granted a certificate of appealability (COA) on three claims. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the federal district court’s denial of federal habeas relief. The Fifth Circuit Court also denied Wood’s additional requests for COA. The U.S. Supreme Court denied certiorari review in January, 2008.

    PRIOR CRIMINAL HISTORY

    Wood received deferred adjudication for burglary of a vehicle, but he was later ordered to serve 90 days in jail.

    http://www.oag.state.tx.us/oagNews/release.php?id=2602

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    August 19, 2010

    Case of non-triggerman set to die raises questions

    HUNTSVILLE, Texas — His lawyers don't dispute that convicted killer Jeffery Wood deserves punishment for his involvement in a robbery more than a dozen years ago where a clerk at a Texas Hill Country gas station convenience store was gunned down.

    But Woods' attorneys and supporters argue he doesn't deserve to die for a murder that occurred while he was waiting in a car outside the store in Kerrville. They also point out that Daniel Reneau, the gunman who killed clerk Kriss Keeran with a fatal shot to the face, already has been executed.

    "Someone answered for this in terms of the death penalty," attorney Scott Sullivan said. "A non-triggerman shouldn't get the death penalty."

    Wood, who turned 35 Tuesday, was set for execution Thursday in a case that again put under scrutiny a unique Texas law that makes accomplices as culpable as the killer in a capital murder case.

    Wood would be the ninth condemned prisoner put to death this year and the fifth this month in the nation's busiest capital punishment state. At least a dozen other Texas inmates have execution dates in the coming months.

    Lawyers were in the courts seeking permission to hire mental health experts to pursue arguments that Wood is incompetent to be executed. They also were unsuccessful convincing the trial judge in the Wood's case to withdraw Thursday's execution date.

    Sullivan said he would take the arguments to the appeals courts.

    Attorneys also went to the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles seeking clemency for Wood.

    "For all the fault he does bear for Keeran's untimely death (Wood) does not deserve to die," they said in a petition to the board, which was expected to make a recommendation Tuesday to Gov. Rick Perry. "He has never taken a human life by his own hands."

    Wood's case was being compared to another convicted Texas killer, Kenneth Foster, whose death sentence was commuted a year ago by Perry. Foster also was condemned under the law of parties, although Perry's explanation for commuting Foster's sentence to life in prison 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 — executed in 2002 — were tried separately.

    "We certainly would eyeball Foster as an example why he should not be executed," Sullivan said. "If it was good enough for Foster, it's certainly good enough for us."

    Since Texas resumed carrying out executions in 1982, Foster's commutation recommendation from the Board of Pardons and Paroles, just hours before he was scheduled to die, marked only the second time the panel voted to stop an execution as the punishment loomed. In the first case, in 2004, Perry rejected the board's recommendation and the prisoner was executed.

    Prosecutors said Reneau hatched the plan that also involved Wood, his roommate, and culminated with the death of Keeran, 31, who knew both men. Wood's involvement was the result of what his lawyers argued was a "longstanding mental illness that allowed him to be easily manipulated" by Reneau, who they called "the principal actor."

    "Wood's emotional and psychological impairments, including his intellectual limitations, diminished Wood's capacity to anticipate what Daniel Reneau would do inside the convenience store," his lawyers said.

    Lucy Wilke, the Kerr County assistant district attorney who prosecuted Wood, and Kerr County District Attorney Bruce Curry, both were in a grand jury Monday and unavailable, Curry's office said.

    After his 1998 trial, Wilke described Wood as "not a dummy" and called the slaying "cold-blooded, premeditated."

    Wood initially 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. After he was found guilty, 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 and called no witnesses on his behalf and declined to cross-examine prosecution witnesses.

    "So we sat there and twiddled our thumbs," one of his trial lawyers, Scott Monroe, recalled last week. "It's pretty frustrating."

    Evidence showed Reneau entered the store before dawn on Jan. 2, 1996, and fatally shot Keeran once in the face with a .22-caliber pistol. Then joined by Wood, they robbed the store of more than $11,000 in cash and checks. Both were arrested within 24 hours.

    According to court records, Wood was waiting outside the store and came in after Keeran was shot, then both fled with the store safe, a cash box and a video recorder containing a security tape showing the robbery and slaying.

    Evidence showed the pair had planned the robbery for a couple of weeks and unsuccessfully tried recruiting Keeran and another employee to stage a phony robbery.

    Reneau and Wood drove to Wood's parents home in Devine, about 65 miles to the south, where they tried to open the safe with a sledge hammer and a blow torch.

    When Wood's 16-year-old brother, Jonathan, asked them how they got the safe, Wood told him about the holdup and shooting. And when the brother expressed skepticism, Wood showed him the tape. Wood's brother testified he then was ordered to destroy the tape with the blow torch.

    Wood led police to the murder weapon, which Reneau said had been taken by Wood in an earlier burglary.

    (Source: The Houston Chronicle)

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    August 19, 2010

    HUNTSVILLE, Texas — The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles on Tuesday rejected a clemency request for condemned inmate Jeffery Wood, moving him a step closer to execution set for later this week.

    The board voted 7-0 to not recommend Gov. Rick Perry commute Wood's death sentence.

    Wood is set to die Thursday for the 1996 death of Kriss Keeran, a clerk at a convenience store in Kerrville. Wood's lawyers don't dispute he deserves punishment but argue he doesn't deserve to die for a murder that occurred while he was waiting in a car outside the store.

    Daniel Reneau, the gunman, already has been executed.

    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.

    "We're just very disappointed," said Scott Sullivan, one of Wood's lawyers.

    Wood would be the ninth condemned prisoner put to death this year and the fifth this month in the nation's busiest capital punishment state. At least a dozen other Texas inmates have execution dates in the coming months.

    Wood also lost an appeal in the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Tuesday. Sullivan had sought permission to hire mental health experts to pursue arguments that Wood is incompetent to be executed. He said the appeals would be taken to the federal courts.

    Wood's case was being compared to another convicted Texas killer, Kenneth Foster, who a year ago 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 — executed in 2002 — were tried separately.

    "I just don't understand how we're not more like Foster," Sullivan said.

    Slaying called 'cold-blooded'

    Reneau and Wood were roommates and knew Keeran, 31. Wood's involvement was the result of what his lawyers argued was a "longstanding mental illness that allowed him to be easily manipulated" by Reneau, who they called "the principal actor."

    Lucy Wilke, the Kerr County assistant district attorney who prosecuted Wood, described Wood after his 1998 trial as "not a dummy" and called the slaying "cold-blooded, premeditated." She was in trial Tuesday and unavailable, the district attorney's office said. District Attorney Bruce Curry did not return a telephone call from The Associated Press.

    Wood initially 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. After he was found guilty, 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 and called no witnesses on his behalf and declined to cross-examine prosecution witnesses.

    Evidence showed Reneau entered the store before dawn on Jan. 2, 1996, and fatally shot Keeran once in the face with a .22-caliber pistol. Then joined by Wood, they robbed the store of more than $11,000 in cash and checks. Both were arrested within 24 hours.

    According to court records, Wood was waiting outside the store and came in after Keeran was shot, then both fled with the store safe, a cash box and a video recorder containing a security tape showing the robbery and slaying.

    Evidence showed the pair had planned the robbery for a couple of weeks and unsuccessfully tried recruiting Keeran and another employee to stage a phony robbery.

    http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5953000.html

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    On August 20, 2008, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied Wood's appeal. A stay of execution was also denied.

    Opinion is here:

    http://www.cca.courts.state.tx.us/OP...PINIONID=17237

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    August 20, 2010

    HUNTSVILLE, Texas — Lawyers for condemned prisoner Jeffery Wood say his mental problems led him to get involved in a robbery scheme that left a Texas Hill Country store clerk murdered in a fatal shooting carried out by a partner while Wood sat outside in a car.

    Attorneys for Wood were in the federal courts seeking permission to hire mental health experts to pursue their arguments that he was incompetent to be executed Thursday for the January 1996 slaying of Kriss Keeran, 31, at a Kerrville Texaco gas station convenience store.

    Texas courts have refused the appeals.

    Wood would be the ninth condemned prisoner put to death this year and the fifth this month in the nation's busiest capital punishment state. At least a dozen other Texas inmates have execution dates in the coming months.

    Daniel Reneau, the gunman in Keeran's slaying and Wood's roommate, 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.

    Wood's mental illness "was a critical element throughout his trial and sentencing," Wood's lawyers said.

    Attorney Scott Sullivan said in a motion rejected Tuesday by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals that he met with Wood a month ago at death row and Wood told him he believed the trial judge in his case 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, among other things, that 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.

    "Wood's delusional beliefs are true to him and always presented in grandiose fashion," Sullivan said.

    While the U.S. Supreme Court has barred the execution of prisoners determined to be mentally retarded, the same blanket prohibition has not been extended to those with mental illness.

    Wood, who declined to speak with reporters as his execution date neared, initially 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.

    Wood's appeals lawyers urged Gov. Rick Perry to use his authority to grant a one-time 30-day reprieve for Wood so a mental health expert could be appointed to examine him.

    "Given his long-standing history of mental illness, Gov. Perry must not allow Mr. Wood's execution to go forward without allowing the court to rule on this rudimentary due process right," said Andrea Keilin, executive director of the Texas Defender Service, a legal group that represents death row inmates.

    The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles already has refused, on a 7-0 vote, to recommend the governor 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.

    Reneau and Wood knew Keeran, 31. Wood's lawyers said his mental illness allowed him to be easily manipulated by Reneau, who they called "the principal actor" in the shooting.

    Lucy Wilke, the Kerr County assistant district attorney who prosecuted Wood, described him after his 1998 trial as "not a dummy" and called the slaying "cold-blooded, premeditated."

    Evidence showed Reneau entered the store before dawn on Jan. 2, 1996, and fatally shot Keeran once in the face with a .22-caliber pistol. Then joined by Wood, they robbed the store of more than $11,000 in cash and checks. Both were arrested within 24 hours.

    According to court records, Wood was waiting outside the store and came in after Keeran was shot, then both fled with the store safe, a cash box and a video recorder containing a security tape showing the robbery and slaying. Evidence showed the pair had planned the robbery for a couple of weeks and unsuccessfully tried recruiting Keeran and another employee to stage a phony robbery.

    http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/5955401.html

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    August 20, 2010

    The Texas Board of Pardons and Parole has unanimously rejected a clemency petition from a man who is set to be executed for the murder of a store clerk, even though he was sitting in a truck outside the store when the murder happened.

    Texas death row inmate Jeff Wood and his wife, Kristin. Wood is scheduled to be executed Aug. 21, even though he did not kill anyone.

    The decision means Jeff Wood will be executed Thursday, unless Texas Gov. Rick Perry grants him a 30-day reprieve or a judge issues a stay.

    Wood was sentenced to death in 1998 for his role in the murder of Kris Keeran, a gas station attendant who was killed during a 1996 robbery.

    But Wood did not kill Keeran. Danny Reneau, Wood's former roommate, was convicted of shooting Keeran between the eyes during the robbery on Jan. 2, 1996. Reneau was executed in 2002.

    Wood was convicted under a Texas law known as the law of parties, which makes him equally responsible for crimes committed by accomplices that "should have been anticipated" during the course of the robbery, even if he did not commit the crimes.

    Although most states have similar laws, often called felony murder statutes, defendants are rarely executed unless they have actually killed someone. There have been at least seven such executions, excluding murder-for-hire cases, since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

    Wood was the getaway driver while Reneau robbed the Kerrvill, Texas, gas station where Keeran worked. Reneau shot and killed Keeran after he refused to go along with a plan to fake a robbery and split the proceeds, according to court documents.


    Related

    The Man Who Didn't Kill May Be Executed

    Wood, who told police Keeran was a friend, later admitted that he came into the store after hearing the gunshot that killed Keeran, court opinions in the case say. Wood then helped Reneau take the store VCR and surveillance tapes -- only after Reneau forced him to do so at gunpoint, he claimed.

    Kerr County Assistant District Attorney Lucy Wilke, in a letter to the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, called Wood "the mastermind of this senseless murder," noting that Wood told his brother, who was not implicated, to destroy the surveillance tape after watching it together, according to the San Antonio Express.

    After initially denying involvement in the robbery, Wood admitted in a statement to police that he knew Reneau was going to rob the gas station, that Reneau planned to bring a gun and might use it if Keeran didn't cooperate, according to court opinions.

    Wood's family says the statement was coerced and point to testimony from a witness at Reneau's trial who said that Wood didn't know Reneau was bringing a gun. That testimony was not admitted at Wood's trial.

    His wife and father say Wood, who was initially found mentally incompetent to stand trial, is eager to please and has trouble understanding information. After spending several weeks in a mental hospital, Wood was found competent to stand trial.

    "He had a very strong need to be accepted," his wife, Kristin, said. "He very easily went along with whoever wanted to accept him. That's why he ended up in bad company."

    On Tuesday, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeal rejected a motion to have Wood's mental competency evaluated.

    http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/story?id=5617113&page=1

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    August 21, 2010

    Judge delays Texan's execution for 1996 robbery-murder


    The 1996 robbery of Kerrville's Goldstar Texaco was far more than a nickel-and-dime job.

    Inside the convenience store safe lay $11,000 in cash and checks. But when David Reneau, a stocky, 20-year-old nurse's aide, pulled a pistol and announced the stickup, everything went wrong.

    As Reneau's partner, Jeffery Wood, waited in the getaway car, the bandit fatally shot store clerk Kriss Keeran in the face.

    Six years later, Reneau was executed for the murder. Today, unless courts or Gov. Rick Perry intervene, Wood also will be put to death.

    Wood's case was a rare death sentence under Texas' law of parties, which holds accomplices in murders just as culpable as the person who pulled the trigger or wielded the knife. The case has prompted protests by those who contend that the law and the punishment are archaic.

    "Put them together," said David Fathi, U.S. program director for Human Rights Watch, "and you have a situation that the rest of the world views with shock and incomprehension."

    If Wood is executed, he would be at least the fourth murder accomplice — as opposed to actual killer — put to death through Texas' law of parties in recent years. The law has been part of the state penal code since at least 1879.

    "It's a pretty traditional criminal law that accomplices and co-conspirators are equally held culpable," said University of Houston law professor Sandra Thompson, a criminal law specialist. "You don't have to specifically agree to commit a killing. You agree to commit the target crime. Then any other crimes that are foreseeable, you're responsible."

    Role of accomplice

    Supporters of the law, she said, suggest that the mere presence of an accomplice can embolden a criminal to kill. Under this theory, a crime might not have been committed without the presence of an accomplice to support the act.

    University of Texas law professor Jordan Steiker, however, argued that the law's application to Wood "flies in the face of a broader effort to reserve the death penalty for extreme cases."

    Fathi said prosecutors in Reneau's case mocked defense attorneys when they tried to deflect responsibility onto Wood.

    "They argued clearly and unambiguously that Reneau was the bad actor," he said. "Then, after getting the death sentence, at Wood's trial they essentially conflated the two men. They argued that they were in this together."

    Kerr County District Attorney Bruce Curry, whose office prosecuted the case, did not return telephone calls.

    The law of parties, derived from English common law, is on the books in 24 of 36 American death penalty states, but internationally, Fathi said, it is increasingly rare. England abolished it 51 years ago.

    The U.S. Supreme Court, ruling in law of parties cases from Florida and Arizona, has sent mixed signals.

    In 1982, the court reversed the death sentence for Earl Enmund, the getaway driver in a Florida robbery turned deadly. It noted that Enmund did not kill, attempt to kill or intend to kill or to facilitate a murder.

    Five years later, the court held two Arizona brothers culpable in a quadruple homicide committed by their father and another man whom the brothers had armed and helped escape from prison. The brothers, the justices held, "could have anticipated the use of lethal force."

    Neither the Texas Attorney General's Office nor the Harris County District Attorney's Office could say how many capital law of parties cases originated in Harris County, which leads the state in sending killers to death row.

    Among those, however, was the case of Carlos Santana and James Meanes, who killed security guard Oliver Flores in an unsuccessful $1.1 million Houston armored car robbery in 1981. Santana was executed in 1993; Meanes, convicted as the triggerman, in 1998.

    Montgomery County case

    In a Montgomery County case, Joseph Starvaggi and G.W. Green were executed and Glenn Martin was sentenced to life in prison, after they were convicted of the 1975 shooting of Magnolia resident John Denson while burglarizing his home. Starvaggi was convicted as the shooter.

    Gaining greater public attention were the law of parties-related cases of Joseph Nichols of Houston and Kenneth Foster of San Antonio.

    Nichols was executed in 2007 for the 1980 murder of convenience store clerk Claude Shaffer. Nichols' partner, Willie Williams, identified as the triggerman, was executed in 1995.

    At Nichols' first trial, prosecutors tried him under the law of parties. He was convicted, but the jury split in assessing punishment, so Nichols was retried.

    In the second trial, prosecutors largely abandoned the law of parties strategy. "They put on that he was the triggerman," said his attorney, J. Clifford Gunter III. "That's what makes Nichols a little unique."

    Foster was sentenced to die after being convicted under the law of parties in a San Antonio robbery-murder. His attorneys argued that he had only been the getaway driver, and had not anticipated the killing.

    Perry commuted Foster's sentence to life, although he said he intervened only because Foster and a co-defendant had been convicted in a single trial. Foster's partner, Mauriceo Brown, was executed in 2006.

    Against commutation

    In Wood's case, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles unanimously has voted to recommend the condemned man's sentence not be commuted. Perry, however, can still act on his own.

    Wood and Reneau were roommates and knew their victim. For two weeks they planned the crime, even talking with Keeran and another store employee about staging a fake robbery. That plan fell through, prompting Wood and Reneau to undertake an actual stickup. They hauled off a safe and a cash drawer.

    Wood initially was found incompetent to stand trial. After a period of treatment for mental illness, he was found competent, tried and convicted.

    During the punishment phase, he banned his attorneys from introducing character witnesses on his behalf or cross-examining prosecution witnesses. He has not challenged the law of parties in his federal appeals.

    http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5956797.html

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