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Thread: Jeffery Lee Wood - Texas Death Row

  1. #71
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    No need for new hearing on death sentence appeal, judge says

    A judge in Kerrville will only consider pleadings and evidence already in the record for the death sentence appeal of Jeffery L. Wood, one of two men convicted of capital murder for the 1996 robbery and slaying of a store clerk there.

    In staying Wood’s execution last August, the state Court of Criminal Appeals directed the trial court to review defense claims that Wood was denied due process because the sentence was based on false testimony and fake scientific evidence.

    Rather than admitting new evidence into the record or conducting a hearing, state District Judge Keith Williams on Wednesday directed both sides to submit by March 29 their proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law concerning Wood’s writ for habeus corpus.

    “The court hereby determines that there are no existing controverted, previously unresolved factual issues material to the legality of applicant’s confinement,” Williams’ order says, in part.

    District Attorney Lucy Wilke welcomed the decision, noting the state would be handicapped at any hearing held now since a critical witness, psychiatrist James Grigson, is dead.

    “Now, once Judge Williams submits his findings of fact and conclusions of law to the Court of Criminal Appeals, that court can adopt his findings or enter its own,” said Wilke who, as an assistant district attorney, prosecuted Wood at trial in 1998.

    Wood’s lawyer, Jared Tyler, declined comment.

    Wood, now 43, admitted talking with co-defendant Daniel Reneau, about robbing the Texaco near their home that employed Kris Keeran, whose cooperation with the heist they’d earlier sought unsuccessfully.

    Wood, who described Keeran as a friend, said he later tried to back out and dissuade Reneau, who allegedly responded by threatening Wood and his family.

    Evidence at Wood’s 1998 trial showed he was outside the store when Reneau shot and killed Keeran, 31. Wood then entered the store and helped steal a safe and cash box containing about $11,300 in cash and checks,, and a VCR containing a security tape.

    They were quickly arrested. Reneau, 27, was convicted at trial in 1997 and executed in 2002.

    A jury rejected Wood’s claim of duress, Wilke noted, and the state Board of Pardons and Parole has twice since denied requests by Wood to commute his sentence.

    “The defendant concedes that he is guilty of capital murder and only challenges his death sentence, not his finding of guilt by a jury,” she said.

    A major appeal issue for Wood concerns the prosecution’s reliance in the trial’s punishment phase on Grigson, who testified that Wood would “certainly” be a future threat to society.

    Grigson was nicknamed “Dr. Death” for the number of times he’d appeared as a state witness in cases that resulted in the assessment of capital punishment.

    Defense pleadings accuse Grigson of inflating his experience, exaggerating the certainty of his findings, improperly rendering opinions on capital defendants based on hypotheticals, and overstating the likelihood that they’d pose future dangers, often characterizing it as “absolutely” or “with 100 percent certainty.”

    “A conviction procured through the use of false testimony is a denial of the due process guaranteed by the federal Constitution,” Tyler argued in a brief seeking to overturn the death sentence.

    The document says Wood‘s lawyer didn’t cross-examine Grigson at trial and that Girgson, unknown to jurors, “had been expelled from professional associations for testifying to psychiatric opinions about an individual’s future dangerousness based on a hypothetical question and to a certainty.”

    “This omission misled the jury as to his forensic psychiatric competence and credibility,” Tyler said in the 92-page brief drafted last July.

    In the state’s brief, Wilke argues that Wood should not now — 13 years after Grigson’s death — be permitted to challenge his testimony after remaining silent during the trial’s punishment phase and calling no witnesses.

    “Equity should not permit him to take a second run at Dr. Grigson when he waived that ability almost 20 years ago,” Wilke wrote in her 34-page pleading.

    http://www.expressnews.com/news/loca...l-10981115.php
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

  2. #72
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Five death penalty reform bills heard in Texas House committee

    Five death penalty bills were heard in a seven-hour-long meeting at the Capitol Monday night

    By Jolie McCullough
    The Texas Tribune

    The death penalty was a hot topic at the Texas Capitol Monday night.

    Testimony on five capital punishment bills was heard by the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee in a seven-hour-long meeting that lasted until close to midnight. The bills included two that would stop the practice of sentencing accomplices to death in certain cases and two which would abolish the death penalty altogether.

    House Bills 147 and 316, by Democrats Harold Dutton and Terry Canales, respectively, would change how a person could be sentenced to death under Texas’ “law of parties,” which holds that those involved in a crime resulting in death are equally responsible even if they weren't the actual killer.

    “At the end of the day, the logic should be, 'Did you intend to participate in that murder? Were you a part of it?'” Canales exclaimed while laying out his bill near the end of the long meeting. “Let’s cut the nonsense out.”

    The most prominent case of a current Texas death row inmate sentenced under the law of parties is Jeff Wood. Wood was convicted in the 1996 murder of Kriss Keeran, who was fatally shot by Wood's friend in a Kerrville convenience store while he sat outside in a truck. Last year, Wood’s case garnered national attention as his execution neared. Texas lawmakers from both parties spoke out against the execution, which was halted days before the scheduled date.

    Republican Rep. Jeff Leach has been one of the most adamant supporters of reforming the law of parties. He has taken an interest in Wood’s case, going so far as to visiting him on death row in February.

    “I promised Jeff that I and Chairman Dutton and Rep. Canales would do everything that we can this session to ensure that another case like Jeff Wood’s case would never happen again in the state of Texas,” Leach said at a news conference earlier Monday on the bills.

    There are two ways to find someone guilty under Texas’ law of parties. The first puts responsibility on those who help commit or solicit a crime, even if they weren’t directly involved. The second states that all parties are responsible for one felony that stems from another if the second “should have been anticipated.” For Wood, the state argued he was willfully participating in a robbery and knew his accomplice would resort to killing if Keeran did not comply, so Wood should have anticipated the robbery would lead to a murder. Wood has maintained he didnt know his friend had a gun on him.

    The reform bills focus mainly on the “anticipation” clause, removing the possibility of a death sentence if someone is found guilty under the second part of the law of parties and automatically granting them a sentence of life without parole. Currently, after being convicted, a jury still must agree the convict intended to kill or anticipated death to issue a death sentence.

    Travis County Assistant District Attorney Justin Wood was the lone testifier against the bills, with eight others testifying in support of the bills that were laid out close to 11 p.m. He said the law of parties has been a “useful tool” for prosecutors, adding that “there are a lot of monsters who never get their hands dirty.”

    But Dutton argued that those people would still be punished, just not to death.

    Chairman Joe Moody, D-El Paso, said Wood’s testimony resonated with him as he has long struggled to “strike a balance” with the law of parties and the death penalty. In 2009, a similar bill filed in the House made it to the Senate, but died there. Terri Been, Jeff Wood’s sister, said she has been lobbying against the law of parties for 20 years and pleaded through tears for the Legislature to move it forward this year.

    “My cries have fallen on mostly deaf ears. I’m begging you to be leaders and to lead your constituents in the right direction,” she said before wiping her eyes.

    It is not common for a jury to sentence someone to death under the law of parties, but it happens. In 2007, prison inmates Jerry Martin and John Ray Falk, Jr., attempted escape. In the escape, Martin hit and killed prison guard Susan Canfield with a van.

    This March, Falk was sentenced to death as a party to the murder.

    And Texas has executed at least five people under the statute, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Only five other states have executed anyone under similar laws.

    Aside from the law of parties, two identical bills to get rid of the death penalty in Texas completely were also heard Monday evening. Dutton and Rep. Jessica Farrar filed House Bills 64 and 1537.

    Both lawmakers have repeatedly filed abolition bills in past legislative sessions, and they acknowledged their main goal was to keep up a discussion on the death penalty. In a Republican-led legislature, it is almost certain that the bills will not pass.

    Dutton clarified to committee members he was asking for them not to vote against the death penalty but “to vote to let the House have a debate on this.”

    “This bill might not pass this time, but if it doesn’t pass this time, we’ll be right back here next time, fighting the same fight,” Dutton said earlier Monday at a press conference on his two death penalty bills.

    Fourteen people testified in support of abolishing the death penalty for reasons ranging from arbitrary sentencing to the cost of appeals. One woman tearfully spoke of her death-sentenced husband. No one spoke out against the bill.

    The remaining bill focused on the death penalty was one by Rep. Barbara Gervin-Hawkins, a democrat from San Antonio. House Bill 3411 aims to lessen requirements to become the lead defense attorney in capital murder cases to allow for more lawyers to handle the backlog of death penalty cases.

    Texas Defender Services Executive Director Amanda Marzullo argued against the lesser requirements, saying she believed it would cause more trouble in the appeals process and that there were other ways to ease the backlog such as creating a public defender office.

    “We’ve got to build the bench, and we’ve got to move these cases,” Gervin-Hawkins responded. “These people need their day in court.”

    All of the bills were left pending before the committee.

    https://www.texastribune.org/2017/04...s-legislature/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  3. #73
    Senior Member CnCP Legend FFM's Avatar
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    Apparently the trial court didn't do its job. Remanded to the trial court, again....

    http://search.txcourts.gov/SearchMed...9-d67057abcbca

  4. #74
    Senior Member CnCP Legend CharlesMartel's Avatar
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    Texas district attorney who prosecuted Jeff Wood now wants him off death row

    The prosecutor in the death penalty case of a man who didn't kill anyone has asked the parole board and Gov. Greg Abbott to change his sentence to life in prison.

    BY JOLIE MCCULLOUGH
    The Texas Tribune

    The Texas prosecutor who sought the death penalty almost 20 years ago against a man who never killed anyone has now asked that his sentence be reduced to life in prison.

    Now the Kerr County district attorney, Lucy Wilke was the prosecutor in the 1998 murder trial of Jeff Wood — a man whose scheduled execution last year prompted lawmakers to question when the state should put accomplices to death. Although she originally decided to seek the death penalty for Wood, she said in a letter to the prison parole board that “the penalty now appears to be excessive.”

    Wilke asked the board to recommend Gov. Greg Abbott grant clemency and change Wood’s sentence to life in prison. The letter was sent in August, but The Texas Tribune received a copy from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Thursday after a Wednesday court order referred to it.

    “While I am aware that requests for clemency in Death Penalty Capital Murder cases are normally considered when there is an execution date pending, I respectfully ask that you consider this request for commutation of sentence and act on it now, in the absence of such an execution date, in the interest of justice and judicial economy,” she wrote.

    The letter was co-signed by Kerrville Police Chief David Knight, who was an officer at the time of the murder, and the district judge who is handling Wood's current appeal, Keith Williams.

    A spokeswoman for Abbott did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the letter, but the governor has not changed a death-sentenced individual’s sentence since he took office in 2015. A spokesman for the parole board did not say whether members have voted on the request.

    Jeff Wood’s case gained national attention in August 2016, as his execution date neared. Wood, now 44, was convicted and sentenced to death in a 1996 Kerrville convenience store murder — he was sitting outside in the truck when his friend, Daniel Reneau, pulled the trigger that killed clerk Kriss Keeran.

    As an accomplice, he was sentenced under Texas’ felony murder statute, commonly known as the law of parties, which holds that anyone involved in a crime resulting in death is equally responsible, even if they weren’t directly involved in the killing. Wood’s attorneys claimed he didn’t go to the store with the intention of having Keeran killed and didn’t even know Reneau brought a gun. Prosecutors disputed that fact, saying Wood knew Reneau would kill Keeran if he didn't cooperate.

    In the months before his scheduled death, Wood’s case drew the spotlight on Texas’ law of parties, and a bipartisan group of state lawmakers sought to stop the execution. Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Plano, said more than 50 House members signed onto a letter he wrote asking Abbott and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to reduce Wood’s sentence.

    In this year’s legislative session, lawmakers tried unsuccessfully to limit death sentences for those convicted under the law of parties.

    Six days before his execution, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals stopped it and sent the case back to the trial court in Kerr County to review Wood’s claim that a jury was improperly persuaded to hand down a death sentence because of testimony from a highly criticized psychiatrist nicknamed “Dr. Death.”

    Wood’s lawyers claimed the psychiatrist, Dr. James Grigson, lied to jurors about how many cases he had testified in and how often he found a defendant would be a future danger. The lawyers claimed he almost always found they would be. A person can only be sentenced to death if a jury unanimously agrees that he or she would present a danger.

    In her letter, Wilke cites the issues with Grigson's testimony as reason for requesting a change of sentence. She claims she was unaware at the time of the trial that he had been expelled from the American Psychiatric Association and Texas Society of Psychiatric Physicians.

    “Had I known about Dr. Grigson’s issues with said organizations, I would not have used him as the State’s expert witness in this case on the issue of future dangerousness,” she wrote.

    Wilke said she wants clemency for Wood because of Grigson's testimony and other factors including: the fact that he wasn't the shooter, his documented history of low intelligence and his nonviolent history in and out of prison. She mentioned that three jurors have submitted affidavits saying they would not have agreed Wood presented a future danger if they'd been aware of Grigson's issues.

    In April, the Kerr County court paused its review of the Grigson claims after Wood’s lawyers said they and the state’s lawyers were in discussions about a “possible settlement,” according to a Wednesday court order by the Court of Criminal Appeals. The order directed the trial court to resume its review regardless of the prosecution’s request to leadership that Wood’s sentence be changed.

    If Wood's sentence is changed to life in prison, he would become eligible for parole 40 years after the crime — in 2036.

    https://www.texastribune.org/2017/12...eath-sentence/

  5. #75
    Senior Member CnCP Legend FFM's Avatar
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    ARTICLE 11.071 APPLICATION FOR WRIT OF HABEAS CORPUS DENIED/DISMISSED WITH WRITTEN ORDER:

    http://search.txcourts.gov/SearchMed...4-57909a29091c

    CONCURRING OPINION JUDGE NEWELL

    http://search.txcourts.gov/SearchMed...3-60c8c7153341

    DISSENTING OPINION JUDGE ALCALA

    http://search.txcourts.gov/SearchMed...6-22d91a7a6c63

  6. #76
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Does the TCCA just flip a coin on cases they will grant or deny?

  7. #77
    Senior Member CnCP Legend FFM's Avatar
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    No.

  8. #78
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    On July 11, 2019 the following was ordered.

    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 10/1/2019.

    https://www.supremecourt.gov/search....c/18-8561.html
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

  9. #79
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    In today's orders, the US Supreme Court DENIED Wood's certiorari petition.

    Lower Ct: Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas
    Case Numbers: (WR-45,500-02)
    Decision Date: November 21, 2018

    https://www.supremecourt.gov/search....c/18-8561.html

  10. #80
    Moderator Ryan's Avatar
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    Wood's death sentence is likely to remain. If the courts, the parole board or Gov. Greg Abbott commute his sentence to life without parole, it's a disgrace. The law of parties states that anyone involved in the crime where someone was killed, implicates all in capital murder. Wood will most likely face Huntsville in the near future as his appeals are being exhausted. Wood currently does not have an execution date from Kerr County.
    "How do you get drunk on death row?" - Werner Herzog

    "When we get fruit, we get the juice and water. I ferment for a week! It tastes like chalk, it's nasty" - Blaine Keith Milam #999558 Texas Death Row

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