Veto Threat Alters Death Penalty Bill
By Mike Ward | Thursday, May 21, 2009, 06:03 PM
Facing a veto threat from Gov. Rick Perry, members of the Senate
Criminal Justice Committee voted this evening to drop a controversial
provision from a bill designed to keep defendants from being executed
who were involved in a capital crime, did no killing themselves.
As amended, House Bill 2267 now will require only separate trials for
co-defendants in capital murder cases, where one defendant committed
the murder and the other did not.
Advocacy groups immediately decried the last-minute change, but said
they still supported separate trials.
As approved by the House last week, the bill would have been
significant change in the state’s death-penalty law, one that was
vehemently opposed by prosecutors and cheered by death-penalty
opponents.
Under current law, known as “the law of parties,” multiple defendants
in a capital murder case can face execution, even if they did not
pull the trigger.
Texas has been criticized nationally in past years for cases in which
the triggerman cut a deal with police and escaped execution, after
testifying against a co-defendant who did not pull the trigger but
was executed.
Prosecutors have argued that if defendants participate together in a
crime, even if one stands and watches an accomplice commit murder,
they should be held equally liable.
“We wanted that provision to stay in, but the Governor’s Office made
it clear they would veto the bill if that went through,” said state
Sen. Juan Hinojosa, D-McAllen. “At least we’re changing it so co-
defendants will have to be tried separately. You won’t taint an
accomplice by having them sit beside the triggerman in court at the
same trial.”
While Hinojosa said he was not satisfied with the change, “we’re not
going to get any progress on this area of law until we get another
governor. I realize that, so we do what we can.”
After the disputed wording was deleted, the bill was passed
unanimously by the committee, the last stop before the measure will
come for a vote by the full Senate.
When the measure passed the House last Friday, its sponsors tagged it
the “Kenneth Foster Jr. Act,” after a man whose death sentence was
commuted to life imprisonment by Perry in 2007.
Foster was sentenced to die as a co-defendant in a case, even though
he did not kill anyone. He was convicted in a trial with the killer.
A similar case involving a condemned co-defendant, Jeff Wood, has
been championed as a reason to change the law. Wood remains on death
row, after his co-defendant — the killer — has been executed.
“It will be an important reform to require separate trials in capital
cases, but we will be disappointed if the provision to prohibit the
state from seeking the death penalty in law of parties cases is
removed from the bill. People who do not kill anyone should not be
punished by death,” Scott Cobb, president of Texas Moratorium
Network, a death-penalty opposition group, said before the
committee’s vote.
“This bill is very important because it touches the lives of innocent
people that did not kill and are waiting to be executed for crimes
that they did not commit.”
http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/
politics/entries/2009/05/21/facing_a_veto_threat_from.html
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August 22, 2008
HOUSTON — With only hours until his scheduled execution, a man won a stay Thursday when a federal judge granted him a hearing to determine whether he was mentally competent.
The condemned man, Jeffery Lee Wood, 35, was to be put to death Thursday evening for a killing committed by his partner in a 1996 robbery. But the execution was put off for at least six months by the decision of the judge, Orlando Luis Garcia of the Federal District Court in San Antonio, who suggested that he would hold the hearing next February or March.
The Texas attorney general, Greg Abbott, had yet to decide Thursday night whether he would appeal the decision, said a spokeswoman for his office, Lauri Saathoff.
Mr. Wood’s lawyers argue that he is too delusional to understand why he is to die and thinks that among other things he is the victim of a Freemason conspiracy.
Judge Garcia wrote that Mr. Wood’s bizarre statements at his trial and in prison “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.”
The judge said the Texas courts erred badly in the last week when they refused to hire mental health experts to determine whether Mr. Wood was mad or to appoint a lawyer to represent him at a competency hearing.
The United States 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.
Judge Garcia said lawyers for Mr. Wood had submitted enough evidence of a delusional state of mind to warrant a hearing on the matter, and he strongly chastised the state courts for denying Mr. Wood a lawyer and a psychologist to help make that claim.
Mr. Wood was caught in a Catch-22, the judge said. The state courts ruled that he had to show he was insane for them to appoint a lawyer and a psychologist to help him prove he was insane. That, the judge said, is “an insane system.”
Mr. Wood has a very limited intellect and a history of emotional problems, learning disabilities and, in prison, suicide attempts.
“He will become delusional and deny the apparent reality right in front of him,” said one of his lawyers, J. Scott Sullivan. “He has a delusion a bribe would solve this whole problem.”
Mr. Wood was arrested shortly after his partner in crime, Daniel Reneau, fatally shot a cashier during the robbery of a gas station 12 years ago. Mr. Wood was outside in a getaway car when the shot was fired by Mr. Reneau, who was executed in 2002.
Mr. Wood’s mental problems were severe enough that one jury found him incompetent to stand trial. After spending time in a mental hospital, he was found competent by a second jury. In 1998, he was convicted of murder under a Texas law that 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.
Evidence of Mr. Wood’s mental troubles was never brought before the jury that imposed the death penalty, largely because he became angry and told his lawyers to do nothing during the penalty phase, instructions with which they complied. In his ruling on Thursday, Judge Garcia said that this behavior by Mr. Wood was “bizarre, seemingly paranoid and clearly suicidal.”
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Aug. 21, 2008 —
A federal court today temporarily stopped the execution of a man who was the getaway driver in a robbery that ended in murder, saying he should have the opportunity to argue he is too mentally ill to be executed.
Jeff Wood was scheduled to be executed in Texas Thursday night for his role in the 1996 death of Kris Keeran, a gas station convenience store clerk. Wood was waiting in the car while his former roommate robbed the store, and shot and killed Keeran.
The case has received national media attention because it would be one of the few executions under a legal doctrine that made Wood responsible for crimes committed by his accomplices that "should have been anticipated" -- even if he did not actually commit the crime.
But federal judge Orlando Garcia stayed the execution for another reason, finding that Texas violated Wood's constitutional rights by refusing to provide Wood with a lawyer to help him argue that he is too mentally incompetent to be executed.
"With all due respect, a system that requires an insane person to first make 'a substantial showing' of his own lack of mental capacity without the assistance of counsel or a mental health expert, in order to obtain such assistance is, by definition, an insane system," Garcia wrote.
Wood's attorneys said that Texas did not plan to appeal Garcia's ruling.
Garcia said there was some evidence that Wood did not understand the connection between his role in Keeran's death and the reason he was sentenced to death. He found that Wood should be given the chance to argue that he is mentally incompetent.
Wood was initially found too mentally incompetent to stand trial. After a few months in a state hospital, Wood was found competent to go to trial, though he had not had any medical treatment during that time. He was convicted and sentenced to death in 1998.
An earlier mental health evaluation said Wood had delusional thought patterns and could not appreciate the consequences of his actions. His wife and father, in previous interviews with ABCNews.com, said Wood was eager to please and has trouble understanding information.
"He had a very strong need to be accepted," said his wife, Kristin. "He very easily went along with whoever wanted to accept him. That's why he ended up in bad company."
"He didn't know how to process information the way other people do," said Wood's father, Daniel. "He didn't know how to plan. He didn't know how to put things together. He loved to fish, but he couldn't plan for fresh water versus salt water. His solution was to bring everything."
A jury found Wood guilty after deliberating for about 90 minutes. During the penalty phase of the trial, during which defense lawyers try to persuade the jury to spare the defendant's life, Wood told his lawyers not to call any witnesses or cross-examine any prosecution witnesses.
His trial lawyer said he was morally opposed to Wood's decision, calling it "a gesture of suicide," court papers say.
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, 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 -- but only after Reneau forced him to do so at gunpoint, Wood claimed.
Wood was convicted under a Texas law known as the law of parties.
Though most states have similar laws, often called felony murder statutes, they are rarely used to sentence criminals to death. 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.
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that a person may be executed for a murder he or she did not commit or intend to commit if they were a "major participant" in the crime or acted with "reckless indifference to the value of human life."
The Texas Board of Parole and Pardons on Tuesday denied Wood's clemency petition.
Copyright © 2008 ABC News Internet Ventures
___________________________________________________________________________
By Juan A. Lozano
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Friday, August 22, 2008
HUNTSVILLE — A federal judge on Thursday delayed the execution of a condemned Texas inmate so he can be tested to determine whether he's mentally competent to understand why he would be put to death.
Jeffery Wood was set to be executed Thursday for taking part in a 1996 robbery of a Hill Country store in which a clerk was fatally shot.
But U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia in San Antonio 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.
Although the evidence was far from compelling, Garcia said, 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 a U.S. Supreme Court decision last year. That ruling 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 attorney general's office, which argued that Wood had failed to show he was incompetent to be executed, said in an e-mail statement that "our attorneys are reviewing the order and will make a decision whether to appeal."
Wood would have been the ninth condemned prisoner put to death this year and the fifth this month in Texas.
Attorney Scott Sullivan said in a motion filed Tuesday that he met with Wood a month ago and that Wood told him that he believed the trial judge was corrupt but would accept a $100,000 bribe and then deport him to Norway, where Wood could live with his wife. Sullivan said Wood also says 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.
The U.S. Supreme Court bars the execution of prisoners determined to be mentally disabled, but that protection has not extended to those with mental illness.
In January 1996, Wood waited in a car outside a convenience store in Kerrville while his roommate fatally shot the clerk, Kriss Keeran, once in the face with a .22-caliber pistol._________________________________________________________________
Stop the Execution: Jeff Wood Faces Death Tomorrow for a Murder He Didn't Commit
By Liliana Segura, AlterNet. Posted August 20, 2008.
The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles has unanimously denied clemency for Jeff Wood, a man who killed no one. This cannot be tolerated. Imagine being 14 years old and waiting to learn whether your father is going to live or die. Only you're not in a hospital waiting room, or anticipating dreadful news from a war zone. You are in Texas, and your father is on death row. His life is in the hands of seven people who will sit around a table and, in a deliberate manner, officially decide whether he should, indeed, be strapped to a gurney and injected with lethal chemicals, as planned. On the narrow chance that they decide to grant clemency, it is then up to the governor, a man who has signed off on more executions than any other in the country, to follow through.
This is what Paige Lynn Wood went through all day yesterday, which also happened to be her father's 35th birthday. In the end, her worst fears were realized: On Tuesday afternoon, the board decided, in a vote of 7-0, to execute her father, Jeff Wood. Wood is scheduled to die by lethal injection Thursday night for a murder he did not commit. It's not just that he has a strong innocence claim, or that his state-appointed council was completely incompetent during his capital trial. The fact is, Wood did not kill anyone -- and no one argues that he did. The person who committed the murder for which he is scheduled to die was already executed, six years ago.
The Crime, an Overzealous Prosecutor and a Man Named "Dr. Death"
On New Years Day 1996, 22-year-old Jeff Wood was in on a plot to rob a Texaco convenience store in Kerrville, Texas, along with a man named Daniel Reneau. The store's assistant manager was an accomplice in the robbery: He was going to help Reneau navigate the store. But things didn't go according to plan, and in the early hours of Jan. 2, Reneau shot their friend Kriss Keeran, who was working behind the counter, in the face, killing him instantly.
Wood was startled when he heard the gunshot, but he reportedly helped carry out the subsequent robbery anyway, stealing several thousand dollars. He and Reneau were arrested within 24 hours. They confessed to the crime, and Wood led police to the murder weapon.
While it remains unclear to what extent Wood was supposed to participate in the robbery, what is absolutely undisputed is that Wood had no role in Keeran's murder. According to his attorneys, he was not even aware that Reneau was carrying a gun. After all, the robbery was supposed to be an inside job. As reiterated in the clemency brief filed by Wood’s defense attorneys early this month, "Reneau -- the only person inside the store and who carried a weapon -- alone made the decision to take Keeran's life. Mr. Wood was outside the store in his brother's truck."
Months later, during the trial of Daniel Reneau, there was no ambiguity over who had killed Keeran. According to Jordan Smith of the Austin Chronicle, "the state argued that he was responsible for Keeran's murder and portrayed Wood as little more than a sap, steamrolled by the villainous Reneau."
Renaeu was sentenced to death in March 1997. He was executed in 2002. Following the execution, the Dallas Morning News reported that when "asked on death row last week to identify the shooter, Reneau had a one-word reply: 'Me.'"
Having locked in a death sentence for Reneau, it should have defied logic and legal ethics for prosecutors to change the story to make Wood the real villain. But that's what happened. "At Wood's trial," reports Smith, "prosecutors reversed their strategy, arguing that Wood deserved to die because he'd gotten Reneau to 'do his dirty work.'"
Wood's defense lawyers were useless. "Bowing to Mr. Wood's emotional and irrational insistence, Mr. Wood's appointed lawyers declined to cross-examine any witnesses or present any evidence on Mr. Wood's behalf," his appeals attorneys argue. "Mr. Wood's trial attorneys called Mr. Wood's actions a 'gesture of suicide.'" If anything, it was an assisted suicide. Reports Smith, "not only did (Wood's defense) withhold from the jury evidence of his troubled youth, but they also failed to cross-examine any state witnesses, including the wildly speculative testimony of Dr. James Grigson -- derisively known by many, including colleagues in the psychiatric community, as 'Dr. Death' for predictably offering testimony in capital cases that a defendant would pose a danger to society, one of the questions a jury must decide in order to impose a death sentence." (In 1995, Grigson was kicked out of the American Psychiatric Association and Texas Society of Psychiatric Physicians for "flagrant ethical violations.")
Thus, one year after Renaeu was given a death sentence for killing Keeran, Wood, despite not having been present to witness the murder, was given a death sentence for the same crime.
The Case of Kenneth Foster Jr.
The case of Jeff Wood may sound beyond the pale, even for the state that carries out more executions than any other jurisdiction in the country, but it is by no means the first time the state of Texas has tried to kill two people for a murder committed by one person. In fact, at this same time last year, Kenneth Foster Jr. faced execution in a case with striking similarities to Jeff Wood's. Foster was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1996 murder of Michael LaHood Jr., despite the fact that the actual murder had been committed by another man.
Foster was 19 years old and acting as the "getaway driver" in a series of robberies when one of the people in the car, a man named Mauriceo Brown, shot and killed LaHood, the son of a prominent attorney, at the end of the night. Foster was 80 feet away -- like Wood, waiting in the car -- when Brown pulled the trigger. He had the windows rolled up and was unaware that a murder was taking place. Mauriceo Brown admitted to the murder; he was executed in 2006.
Last year, Foster's life was saved by a grassroots movement to stop his execution. At the center of the public outcry was the injustice of a legal statute, one that, in its application, is uniquely Texan.
An Unjust Law
Foster and Wood were both sentenced under Texas's "law of parties," which is a twist on a conspiracy statute that allows a defendant to be held accountable for a crime even if he or she did not commit it. As I explained in writing about the Foster case last summer, in the state of Texas, "this can mean sentencing someone to death even if he or she had no proven role in a murder."
Texas's law states that "if, in the attempt to carry out a conspiracy to commit one felony, another felony is committed by one of the conspirators, all conspirators are guilty of the felony actually committed, though having no intent to commit it." Defendants, the Texas courts say, can be held responsible for "failing to anticipate" that the "conspiracy -- in Foster's case, the robberies, for which he was the getaway driver -- would lead to a murder.
In Wood's case, the murder was also unplanned. Thus, he too is to be executed for "failing to anticipate" that someone would be killed.
Family Victims
As he faced execution, Foster shared something else in common with Wood: He had a young daughter who was a courageous voice of protest on behalf of her father. At a July 2007 rally, 11-year-old Nydesha Foster read from an essay about her father. "They hate on my dad because they say, 'he should have known better.' Are they following the law to the letter? Or the letter to the law?" She continued:
I stand as a child in the light of redemption. I benefit from his kisses and what he does even when people don't look or listen. So what is justice? Shame on you, Texas, because this time you're really wrong. This is my poem, my prayer, my song. That you will be known for something other than killing and ignoring the truth. We all make mistakes. Even you.
You can watch it here.
Like Nydesha, Paige Lynn Wood has stood in public to defend the life of her father. Pictures of her and other family members at rallies, making signs and approaching the governor's mansion can be found on the Save Jeff Wood Web site. So can her poetry.
One of her poems is called "Waiting."
I sit and wait … And wonder/I have been waiting my whole life
All the time wondering … Is my daddy coming home?
One is titled "Texas Took My Dad."
My dad is not the killer/That you are led to believe he is.
He is a kind and gentle soul who only tried to do/What he believed was best for me
... And for those of you Who want to kill my dad …
For shame, for shame/It's you who are now to blame/for taking away my life!
Tell Gov. Rick Perry Not to Execute Jeff Wood
Jeff Wood's supporters are urging the governor of Texas to grant a 30-day stay of execution. Call or fax the governor today:
Phone:
****UPDATE: On Thursday, August 21, a federal appeals court granted a last-minute stay of execution, on the grounds that Wood is not mentally competent for execution. Thanks to all of you who helped get the word out!****
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A thirty-five-year-old man on death row in Texas faces execution tonight for a murder he didn’t commit. Jeff Wood is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 6:00 p.m., unless Governor Rick Perry grants him clemency. Wood was an accomplice in a 1996 convenience store robbery. He was sitting in a truck outside when the clerk was shot and killed. The man who pulled the trigger was executed six years ago, but Wood was given a death sentence for the same crime under the Texas law of parties. We go to the prison where Jeff Wood is awaiting death to speak with his wife, mother and father outside. We also speak with Liliana Segura of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty.
Governor of Texas:
Guests:
Liliana Segura, board member of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty and a staff writer and editor at Alternet.org.
Danny Wood, Jeff Wood’s father
Kristin Wood, Jeff Wood’s wife.
Mitzie Wood, Jeff Wood’s mother.
JUAN GONZALEZ: A thirty-five-year-old man on death row in Texas faces execution tonight for a murder he didn’t commit. Jeff Wood is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 6:00 p.m., Texas time, unless Governor Rick Perry grants him clemency.
No one disputes the fact that Jeff Wood did not kill anyone. But he was convicted and sentenced to death under Texas’s law of parties for the 1996 murder of convenience store clerk Kriss Keeran. Wood was sitting in a truck outside the store when the murder occurred. The man who confessed to the killing, Daniel Reneau, was executed six years ago.
But the Texas law of parties allows accomplices to be subject to the death penalty if a murder occurs during a crime, even if he or she did not commit it. So one year after Reneau was given a death sentence for killing Keeran, Jeff Wood was given a death sentence for the same crime, essentially for failing to anticipate that a murder would occur during the robbery.
The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles denied Wood clemency on Tuesday, the day he turned thirty-five on death row in Livingston, Texas. His lawyers have filed a clemency letter with Governor Rick Perry, requesting a thirty-day reprieve. The letter notes that Wood may be incompetent to be executed and requires mental health services. An initial jury had found Wood to be mentally incompetent to stand trial.
AMY GOODMAN: We’re joined now by three guests: by Kristin Wood, Jeff Wood’s wife; and Danny and Mitzie Wood, his mother and father. In this exclusive, they join us from Livingston, Texas. They’re sitting right outside of the prison, where Jeff is now waiting to die.
We’re also joined here in New York by Liliana Segura. She’s a board member of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty and a staff writer and editor at Alternet.org.
We’re going to start right here in New York. Liliana, you’ve been following this case extensively. Lay it out from the beginning, and explain this law of parties.
LILIANA SEGURA: Well, basically, in the early hours of January 2nd, 1996, Jeff Wood was sitting in his brother’s pickup truck outside of this Texaco station in Kerrville, Texas. And he, in the preceding weeks, had had discussions with Daniel Reneau about possibly holding up this store, and it was supposed to be an inside job. They knew the store. They knew the people who worked there. They hung out there. And this man named Bill Bunker, the assistant manager, had said that he would help them navigate the security cameras and the safe and all of that. But when it came—
AMY GOODMAN: He was in on it, the—Bill Bunker?
LILIANA SEGURA: He was in on it, yeah. But when it came down to that morning, things didn’t go according to plan, and the person behind the counter instead was the man who was later shot, was Kriss Keeran. Now, Kriss was also friends with these guys, and it’s disputable whether or not he also knew about it. But when it came down to it, he didn’t cooperate, and Daniel Reneau shot him in the face, and he died instantly.
Now, at the time, Jeff Wood was sitting in the car. He heard the shot. He ran in. It’s unclear what happened immediately, but he clearly saw that Daniel had a gun and helped him carry out this robbery, and they came away with a few thousand dollars. They were arrested soon thereafter. They confessed to the crime. And Wood helped lead police to the murder weapon.
So, as you laid it out, you know, what happened after that was that Daniel Reneau went to trial, and it was—at trial, it was undisputed. He was the killer, he admitted to it. And Wood was characterized as sort of this hapless sidekick who didn’t really have that much to do with the murder itself. And then, when it came down to try Wood for the crime, he actually initially was found incompetent to stand trial. He was deemed, you know, delusional, mentally unstable—he actually spent some time in a mental institute—and then, later on, was deemed by another jury to actually be competent to stand trial. You know, fast-forward a year later, in 1998, Jeff Wood was sentenced to death a year after Daniel Reneau was sentenced to death for the same murder.
JUAN GONZALEZ: Now, the Supreme Court has ruled in other cases that people who are mentally retarded could not be executed, but the issue of mental illness is not as clear, is it?
LILIANA SEGURA: It’s not as clear, although there’s a very current case, the case of Scott Pannetti out of Texas, that says that, you know, mental illness absolutely is grounds for an execution not to follow through.
But the more relevant Supreme Court rulings in this case have to do with the law of parties, which is the law that you mentioned. This is a law that—there are two decisions that the Supreme Court has made that inform this question, and the first was in 1982, the decision in Enmund v. Florida, which said that a person should not be sentenced to death if they didn’t have a direct role in committing a murder. And then, five years later, in Tison v. Arizona, the Supreme Court ruled that if a person had a role in a crime in which they showed a reckless disregard for human life, that a death sentence was appropriate. So, supporters of the law of parties and defenders of it on legal grounds look to Tison v. Arizona. But Enmund v. Florida is really the prevailing view. It’s very odd or very rare for somebody to be sentenced to death for a crime in which they weren’t the trigger person.
AMY GOODMAN: Did Wood know that Reneau had the gun?
LILIANA SEGURA: No. Well, his lawyers have said, have argued, you know, that he absolutely didn’t know. They even say that the day that the crime was carried out, Wood had tried to dissuade Reneau from taking the gun. So, apparently he was very surprised when he heard the shot, not only because he was startled, but because he didn’t realize that Reneau had the gun.
AMY GOODMAN: But it’s irrelevant in the law of parties? It doesn’t matter whether he knew or not?
LILIANA SEGURA: Well, it is—it’s definitely relevant, because the question—it really hinges on this question of whether a murder could have been anticipated, whether this person who committed in this—who participated in this conspiracy to commit a felony could have anticipated that a murder would be carried out. In this case, if he thought that Daniel Reneau didn’t have a gun, then absolutely he couldn’t have anticipated that this would have happened. But the other thing is that this was an inside job. Again, there was no reason that they would have needed to, you know, bring a gun in the first place.
JUAN GONZALEZ: But there is the issue proponents of his being executed would raise, that he then proceeded with the robbery after the shooting of the victim, after the killing of the victim.
AMY GOODMAN: What about his counsel?
LILIANA SEGURA: Well, it was—his counsel was practically nonexistent. And actually, this is one of the huge problems that—this has only really come out in the clemency brief that his current attorneys have filed. But his counsel basically—first of all, he tried to fire them halfway through the trial. I mean, after he was deemed mentally incompetent, he tried to fire them. They said this is, quote-unquote, “suicide,” what he’s doing. But they still—they failed to bring up his abuse as a child, his mental—his potential mental incompetency, his—all of these factors.
But then, during the sentencing phase, this man named—well, nicknamed “Dr. Death,” a man named Dr. James P. Grigson, who is nicknamed “Dr. Death,” he is a man who has been brought in by the State of Texas in numerous death penalty cases to argue that the defendant stands to, you know, threaten society basically, that this person needs to be sentenced to death because he poses a danger to society. Now, this person in 1995 was kicked out of the American Psychiatric Association and for “flagrant ethical violations,” quote-unquote. And this is all—this all happened before Wood’s trial, and his attorneys failed to bring it up.
AMY GOODMAN: They didn’t cross-examine anyone.
LILIANA SEGURA: That’s right. They didn’t cross-examine anyone. And so, I mean, he was really railroaded.
Now, the other thing to note in this case that’s so important and so distressing is that, you know, exactly a year ago at this time, I was sitting in this seat talking about the case of Kenneth Foster, who is a man who at the last second was saved by a grassroots movement to stop his execution. Kenneth Foster was also sentenced under the law of parties. He was nineteen years old, acting as the getaway driver in a series of robberies, that at the end of the night culminated with the death of a prominent attorney in San Antonio. Kenneth Foster was eighty feet away in a car with the windows rolled up, didn’t realize what had happened and nevertheless was sentenced to death for the murder, this murder that was committed by this man named Mauricio Brown. Mauricio Brown was executed in 2006. And Kenneth Foster still, in August of 2007, last year, faced execution for this crime. So it’s really distressing, in the sense that Texas clearly hasn’t learned its lesson about the law of parties.
AMY GOODMAN: And he didn’t die.
JUAN GONZALEZ: But in that case, Rick Perry did—the Governor did—
LILIANA SEGURA: Yeah.
JUAN GONZALEZ: —stop the execution.
LILIANA SEGURA: In that case, the Board of—the Texas Board of Prisons and—Pardons and Paroles voted, in a vote of six-to-one, to recommend clemency, and that had a lot to do with the fact that there was a huge public outcry against the law of parties. Editorials were run in prominent Texas papers. Major international figures, Desmond Tutu, you know, came out and said this is an egregious miscarriage of justice. And despite the fact that the facts of this case are very, very similar, the Board voted in a unanimous vote, seven-to-zero, on Tuesday to proceed with the execution.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, Jeff Wood is scheduled to die 6:00, as is the custom in Texas, 6:00 Texas time. We’re joined now by his family, by his wife, Kristin Wood, by his mother and father, Danny and Mitzie Wood. They’re outside the prison in Livingston, Texas, where Jeff is now. He will soon be moved to the prison where he could be executed.
We welcome you to Democracy Now! I want to begin with Danny Wood. Tell us about your son Jeff.
DANNY WOOD: Of five children that we have, Jeff is probably the kindest-hearted of any of them. He loves deeply. He cares about people. He’s willing to help anybody at any time. We talked to one of the ministers at the prison yesterday, and he had given us feedback as to what both guards and prisoners had said about Jeff, and he’s pretty well loved throughout the people that he’s dealt with, and he’s exhibited these same qualities there. Knowing his background of what he cares for people, anybody that would know him, anybody that’s ever dealt with him could tell that the possibility of hurting anybody, let alone killing him, is not within Jeff’s nature.
We’ve watched him grow. We’ve watched him be competitive. We’ve watched him love people. He never knew a stranger. He made friends easily, and he’s entertaining. He was always wanting to keep somebody happy, stop conflicts.
The situation as described by the ladies we were listening to—described his situation very well, of his background, of who he was. There’s things that were kept out of the trial that was never allowed to be presented as evidence. Part of the information that people had used to convict Danny, witnesses weren’t even allowed to testify in Jeff’s behalf. I was kept as a witness for the prosecution, so I couldn’t even discuss with the attorneys anything that was happening or give advice, bring up—not that I’m an attorney, but to enlighten them on who Jeff was and what he was about. He was—we’re just so proud of Jeff. [inaudible]
JUAN GONZALEZ: Mr. Wood, why were you kept as a witness for the prosecution?
DANNY WOOD: That wasn’t clearly made evident to me exactly why, other than the fact that all the way through the process, from the time that we knew about it, I pushed for the—everybody involved and the younger son, who was exposed to a film and was threatened and [inaudible]—I was one pushing for the truth to come out, no matter where it fell, no matter which came. Jeff had made some bad decisions. We didn’t want it to affect the rest of the family or the situation, and particularly his younger brother, who was only fourteen at the time.
And these happenings—I really feel personally is that they didn’t want me to either strengthen the case for the defense by knowledge of who Jeff was and some of the other findings that they never allowed to come out. The judge in the case just built a corral and shuttled it in, only the information he wanted heard. He followed the case, even though there was a change of venue. He followed it—and one competency hearing, in which he was declared incompetent in Fredericksburg, to two weeks or three weeks later, to a second competency hearing in San Antonio, to the final trials, there was never—he had an agenda, is what it seems like.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to move to Kristin Wood, because we’re going to try to fix your microphone, Mr. Wood. Kristin is Jeff Wood’s wife, sitting outside of the prison right now in Livingston. What is your understanding at this point of the possibility of the Governor intervening here and stopping the execution of your husband?
KRISTIN WOOD: Well, he has the power to do that. And I—we just hope and pray that he will do the right thing and do so, so, you know, we can get more time to get the truth out there, because right now I’m speaking on the behalf of the family, and we all—we’re just all numb, because, you know, no one thought it would go this far, because everyone has known all along that Jeff did not murder anyone. So we didn’t think it would come as far as this.
AMY GOODMAN: We’re going to break, and we’re going to come back to Jeff Wood’s family. They’re in Livingston, Texas. Kristin Wood, his wife; Danny Wood, his father; Mitzie Wood is also sitting outside the prison right now, and we will speak with her. Our guest in studio here, Liliana Segura, she works with Alternet.org and is a board member of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty. This is Democracy Now! We’ll be back in a minute.
[break]
AMY GOODMAN: Jeff Wood is set to die 6:00, Texas time, today, unless the Governor of Texas, Rick Perry, intervenes. Our guests are his family: his wife, Kristin; his mother and father, Danny and Mitzie Wood. They’re in Livingston, Texas.
Liliana Segura is with us in New York. She’s been following this case, on the board of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty. Can you talk about—you were mentioning Kenneth Foster. He did not die a year ago at this time under the same law because, you feel, of the public pressure.
LILIANA SEGURA: Absolutely, yeah. Talking to his attorney afterwards, you know, he said that the on-the-ground—the grassroots organizing that took place and the editorials that ran in just about every major paper in Texas and the international attention, all of that really put a lot of pressure on the board and on the governor to examine the case. And it really came down to the wire. As I was sitting here last year, I remember we didn’t know what was going to happen, but in the end, the board voted six-to-one, which was just almost unprecedented—that never happens in Texas—to recommend clemency. The board has to recommend clemency, and the governor has to sort of sign off on it. So, at that point, it became about convincing—you know, really pressuring the governor to take their recommendation and grant clemency, and that’s what happened.
And in his statement where he granted clemency, Perry sort of referred to the law of parties and said this is something that needs to be reexamined. And one would hope that, one year later in the state of Texas, maybe this actually would have happened, this would have—this law would have been reexamined. But yet, we find ourselves in a situation where the board has voted unanimously to just go ahead, ignore the facts of the case, ignore the controversy over the law of parties and sign off on the execution. So—
JUAN GONZALEZ: And for those who may want to weigh in with the Governor on this matter, where would they go?
LILIANA SEGURA: Well, right now the main thing to do is to call the Governor. And I have the number right here, and I can give it, give it right now. It’s
AMY GOODMAN: The legislature, is it weighing the law of parties?
LILIANA SEGURA: So, yeah. Basically, what they’re looking for right now, what we’re looking for, is a thirty-day stay of execution. And that doesn’t mean that on the thirty-first day that, you know, the execution will follow through. I mean, what will happen then is that it would mean a new execution date. It would mean maybe six months, maybe a year, in which the Texas legislature could then look at the law of parties.
And the chance of this happening is actually quite good. Ten members of the Texas legislature have already wrote letters to the members of the board saying the law of parties is an aberration, we have to get rid of this. And so, there is energy around this issue right now.
AMY GOODMAN: We’re going to go back to Livingston, Texas, to the family of Jeff Wood: Kristin Wood, his wife, and Danny and Mitzie Wood. We wanted to turn to Mitzie Wood, his mother.
What kind of support are you getting in Texas? And when did you last see Jeff?
We’re going to try to get the audio for them fixed. Again, they are sitting right outside of the prison where Jeff is.
What happens, Liliana, in the course of a day like this? Texas is the place where more people are executed than anywhere in the country. He’s in the Livingston prison right now.
LILIANA SEGURA: Right. And basically, the death chamber is in Huntsville, Texas, and over the course of the day, in the hours preceding his execution, he is taken, you know, in a sort of heavily armed situation to the execution chamber, and the situation is called “death watch” in the preceding hours. And the family—you know, in Texas it’s very common that there are vigils, there are protesters, that sort of thing.
But it’s really—I mean, one talks about the death penalty as cruel and unusual punishment because of the execution, but when you consider the fact that this is a man who still doesn’t know right now whether or not he’s going to live or die, those hours and then the extended hours of waiting, when the governor still hasn’t made a decision, it’s really appalling.
AMY GOODMAN: Let’s try to go back to Livingston. Mitzie Wood, I hope people will just strain to listen carefully. We’re having some problems with the mikes outside the prison. When did you last see your son? What is he saying right now?
MITZIE WOOD: Last saw our son yesterday for about thirty minutes early, early in the morning. And basically, he’s more worried about how his dad and I and his siblings are taking this, as well as his nieces and nephews. He’s holding very well. He’s got a strong Christian walk. And as such, he’s relying heavily on the Lord in taking him through this, be it we have to go through with the execution or if Governor Perry will like give us clemency, at least at this time, for thirty days in order to review the case further. And it really needs to be reviewed, because there’s a lot of stuff that is not making sense. To me, even as a layperson not knowing anything about the law, I see the errors there. And I just hope he takes time and opens his heart to be receptive to do what we feel is right.
JUAN GONZALEZ: And, Mitzie Wood, your defense—the defense attorney for your son has maintained for quite some time that he was mentally ill and should not have been subjected to the death penalty as a result of this crime. Your sense of how the State has dealt with this issue?
MITZIE WOOD: I don’t think they’ve dealt with the issue very well at all. Jeff has always had learning disabilities. He was diagnosed at the age of four-and-a-half, five years of age with ADD. And of course, way back when, in the early—or, pardon me, late ’70s, early ’80s, nobody knew anything about ADD. It wasn’t prevalent to know exactly how long-term it was. They kept telling us, by the time he was twelve years old, that he would be out of it, it was a stage. Now, since then, we have learned it’s not.
And as such, the Governor, the Board of Pardons and Paroles, the criminal justice system itself really have not helped his case at all. Sending him on an incompetency trial, finding him incompetent, sending him to Vernon State Hospital for twenty-two days, says they talked to the—one of the doctors up there for about two hours, and then says, “Oh, he’s competent,” I really have a problem with the Texas system. I don’t think that’s true.
AMY GOODMAN: We want to thank you all for joining us. Mitzie Wood, Danny Wood, Kristin Wood, the wife of Jeff Wood. Tomorrow, we will continue to report on this. Liliana Segura, last comment?
LILIANA SEGURA: I would just say that in these next few hours, please, please call the Governor. I can give that number again. It’s
AMY GOODMAN: Liliana Segura is with the Campaign to End the Death Penalty and a staff writer and editor at Alternet.org.
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Make a note of this name: Jeffery Lee Wood.
And this date: Thursday, Aug. 21, 2008.
That’s Wood’s scheduled date of execution, two days after his 35th birthday.
Now, go back in time with me.
It was a year ago this month — just outside the prison walls that house the Texas death chamber — when a small group of us staunch death-penalty opponents stood in stunned amazement with the family of a condemned man.
We had just gotten news that Gov. Rick Perry had taken the advice of the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles and commuted the sentence of Kenneth Foster from death to life in prison. The decree came just a few hours before Foster’s scheduled execution.
Our amazement turned to jubilation on the Huntsville prison grounds that afternoon, not only because Foster’s life had been spared but also because the governor and board had hinted that there were problems with the law under which the inmate had been convicted and sentenced.
Foster had been tried under the "law of parties" designed to treat "conspirators" equally, meaning that all could be considered culpable for the actions of the one who commits a second crime while in the commission of another. Texas is the only state that applies that law in capital cases.
In Foster’s case, he had been riding around with three other men in San Antonio one night when they stopped to talk to a woman. While Foster waited in the car, one of his passengers, Mauriceo Brown, approached the woman’s male companion some distance away.
There was a shot and Brown rushed back to the car and told Foster to drive away. It was then that he learned that Brown had shot the man, later identified as 25-year-old Michael LaHood.
The evidence clearly showed that Foster, while near the scene of the crime, did not and could not have known what his companion would do. Yet, he stood trial with Brown on capital murder charges. Both were convicted and sentenced to death. Brown was executed July 19, 2006.
The governor, in commuting Foster’s sentence, expressed concern that the two defendants had been tried together and suggested that the Legislature should address the law in its next session.
This newspaper editorialized against Foster’s execution and called for the Legislature to re-examine the law of parties.
Wood, convicted under the same law of parties, is set to be executed this week, five months before the next legislative session begins.
His case is more complicated than Foster’s and involves a series of issues that demand his sentence be commuted to life.
Although he was not tried with his co-defendant, a man who’s been executed for the 1996 murder of a Kerrville convenience store operator, prosecutors continued to link him to the killer.
"Daniel Reneau, who coldly murdered Kriss Keeran in the early morning hours of January 2, 1996, has already been executed by the State of Texas for this senseless act," according to a clemency petition submitted to the governor and the Board of Pardons and Paroles. "Nevertheless, on August 21, 2008, the State seeks to execute Jeffery Wood for the same crime, even though the State does not contend that Mr. Wood shot Keeran. In fact, Mr. Wood was not even in the building when Reneau shot and killed Keeran."
Wood was in on a scheme with Reneau to rob the store with the help of the store’s assistant manager, Bill Bunker, according to the petition. It was to have been an inside job, as Bunker had told the two men where the video recording devices were and how much money was expected to be in the safe.
When Reneau went into the store, Wood remained in a pickup and was later shocked by the sound of a gunshot. Reneau had killed Keeran.
The clemency petition suggests that Wood’s culpability for the crime should lie somewhere between Reneau’s and Bunker’s.
Reneau committed the murder and has been executed for it, but "Bunker — despite being a co-conspirator without whose agreement and encouragement the crime never would have occurred — was never charged with any crime," the petition said.
Other issues include whether Wood was even mentally competent to stand trial. One court said he wasn’t, but he was later declared competent. Although the trial court refused to let him represent himself, he, in effect, would not allow his court-appointed attorneys to do their job.
"Bowing to Mr. Wood’s emotional and irrational insistence, Mr. Wood’s appointed lawyers declined to cross-examine any witnesses or present any evidence on Mr. Wood’s behalf," the petition states. "Mr. Wood’s trial attorneys called Mr. Wood’s actions a 'gesture of suicide’ and objected on moral grounds to participating in the arrangement ordered by the trial court — effectively as legal vessels assisting Mr. Wood’s suicidal ends."
Then, in the punishment phase of the trial, the state called Dr. James Grigson (known widely as "Dr. Death") to the stand to testify that if Wood were not given the death penalty he would continue to be a danger to society. Grigson, who had already been discredited, got his nickname because of the hundreds of times he testified for the state in capital cases.
"Despite having a valid license, Grigson was a medical fraud, although Mr. Wood’s jury did not know it," the petition contends. "In 1995, three years before he testified in Mr. Wood’s trial, Grigson was expelled from the American Psychiatric Association and the Texas Society of Psychiatric Physicians for flagrant ethical violations related to his testimony purporting to predict future dangerousness. Because he was not cross-examined, Mr. Wood’s jury was not aware of this information. Nor did the State elicit it, despite its duty to see that justice is done and to disclose impeachment evidence."
At least 10 state legislators have written the Board of Pardons and Paroles, urging clemency for Wood.
I know the governor gets tired of hearing from me on death-penalty cases, but he must commute this sentence.
It is clear that Wood does not deserve to be executed, and no other person should be put to death under a law that many people believe should never have applied to capital cases.
The least we can do is wait until the Legislature deals with this law in its next session.
Bob Ray Sanders’ column appears Sundays and Wednesdays. 817-390-7775
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2:29 PM Fri, Aug 15, 2008 |
An unusual coalition of folks is rallying to stop Thursday's execution of Jeff Wood, the getaway driver in a deadly convenience store robbery in Kerrville, Texas.
Predictably, it includes his Norwegian wife, Kristen Wood (at right) -- European women have a penchant for championing death row inmates -- and several juvenile relatives of Mr. Wood, who have formed an organization: Kids Against the Death Penalty.
But perhaps most surprising is the stance of Charles Keeran, father of the victim, convenience store clerk Kriss Keeran.
In 1997, when Daniel Reneau, the gunman in the 1996 robbery, was convicted, Charles Keeran called Mr. Reneau and Mr. Wood "garbage."
"I want to see 'em die," he said.
Five years later he changed his mind, asking the governor to commute Mr. Reneau's sentence because killing him wouldn't do any good. Mr. Reneau was executed anyway, but Mr. Keeran is now asking that Mr. Woods be spared, telling the San Antonio Express-News that death is "the easy way out" for the Livingston inmate.
"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."
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Family Asks For Mercy for Death Row Inmate (with audio)
by Matt Largey, KUT, August 15, 2008
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Anti-death-penalty activists and the friends, family and supporters of Jeff Wood scored a tremendous victory yesterday when a federal judge granted him a stay of execution. Though Wood's struggle against the state is far from over, gross injustice was not allowed to carry the day.
Wood was condemned to death in 1996 for the murder of Kris Keeran, even though there is a consensus that Wood did not murder, intend to murder or know that a murder was going to take place. He was sentenced to death under the Law of Parties, section 7.02 of the Texas Penal Code, which holds co-defendants criminally responsible for a crime if they act as conspirators. Put another way, the Law of Parties allows for guilt by association. In Wood's case, he was forced to drive a getaway vehicle after Keeran's actual killer, Daniel Reneau, shot Keeran during a convenience store robbery in 1996. Wood was not even in the building when the killing occurred. Bill Bunker, the store's assistant manager who helped plot and even encouraged the robbery, was never charged with any crime. Reneau was executed in 2002.
Yesterday, Jeff's family and friends, activists and supporters from around the world clogged Gov. Rick Perry's inboxes and phone lines with demands that Wood be spared. Even Kris Keeran's father asked that Wood's sentence be commuted. Last summer, Perry set a precedent for Wood's case when he commuted the sentence of Kenneth Foster, who received the death penalty under similar circumstances.
But even though Wood is safe (for now, at least), his example raises hard questions about the Law of Parties and about capital punishment itself. The statute is clearly being used in an unjust and abusive manner when bit players are forced to pay the ultimate price.
It is time to demand that our state's legislators correct this monstrous injustice. The examples of Kenneth Foster and Jeff Wood are not flukes in an otherwise fair system. Foster and Wood represent the sad tale of most death row inmates: indigence and poverty, inadequate representation, withheld testimony, forced confessions and so on. Even if capital punishment were fair, its overall application reeks of bias and flaws - especially in
The death penalty is not a deterrent to violent crime, and study after study has shown that it actually costs taxpayers more money than life in prison without possibility of parole, after court fees and prison time are factored in.
Currently, an anti-death-penalty sentiment is gripping the nation, mainly due to the fact that more and more Americans realize that there are serious problems when it comes to meting out the ultimate punishment. However, the problem ultimately rests on the fact that states have been given the right to kill people, not in any particular flaws with the death penalty's application.
The use of violence, force or coercion by the state demands a high burden of proof. In Wood's case, it falls on the state to show that the death penalty can be justified only in terms of what is necessary to guarantee the population's safety or survival. The right to kill people, in other words, is such a powerful concession to the state that it cannot be justified intrinsically. As it happens, there are viable alternatives to the death penalty that also prevent murderers from being released into the general population: namely, life in prison without parole. There is no reason to execute people in the name of protecting others.
It is time that we enter the 21st century - or even the 20th century - by abolishing capital punishment now and forever. We've successfully delayed the state-sponsored murder of Jeff Wood. But we still have a long way to go in this state, and our work is certainly cut out for us.
Visit savejeffwood.com for more information about Jeff Wood's case.
Tedrow is a journalism graduate student and a member of Campaign to End the Death Penalty.
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| Death Penalty Two Stays death-penalty on August 22, 2008 at 12:10 PM Both Dennis Skillicorn and Jeff Wood have received stays of execution; in both cases, they had been sentenced to death despite the fact that they did not actually kill. But neither stay was related to that issue. In Skillicorn's case, the Missouri Supreme Court chastised the state for "obstruction of clemency advocacy", for blocking his lawyer's efforts to develop a clemency petition. Skillicorn has developed a reputation as a model prisoner engaged in multiple acts of atonement for his crimes, but efforts by his attorney to interview prisoners and prison staff were thwarted. The court ruled that this was unacceptable. In the case of Woods, the Federal judge granting his stay ripped Texas courts for requiring a mentally ill defendant to prove he is insane in order to have the court appoint a mental health expert and an attorney to help him prove his insanity: "With all due respect," the judge wrote, "a system which requires an insane person to first make a 'substantial showing' of his own lack of mental capacity without the assistance of counsel or a mental health expert, in order to obtain such assistance is, by definition, an insane system." In their zeal to execute remorseful and mentally ill prisoners who did not kill, the states of |
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Greg Moses at the Texas Civil Rights Review and the SaveJeffWood.com website are reporting that a federal judge has issued a stay in the controversial Jeff Wood capital murder case. Wood was scheduled to be executed tonight.
UPDATE: CBS News has an initial report declaring that the delay was "so Wood's attorneys could hire a mental health expert to pursue their arguments that he is incompetent to be executed," an issue that nearly kept him from being prosecuted in the first place. According to the Houston Chronicle:
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.
Doesn't sound like he allowed his attorneys to put on much of a defense, does it? Whether it's evidence of mental illness, it's certainly not a rational act to restrict one's defense in a capital murder trial, particularly when, as in Wood's instance, he wasn't actually the trigger man; he'd helped plan the robbery but was sitting outside in the getaway vehicle when the murder occurred.
I've long ago given up predicting the outcome of capital appeals in
MORE: See additional coverage from the Stand Down blog, and here's a statement issued by the Texas Defender Service:
WOOD EXECUTION HALTED BASED ON TEXAS STATE COURTS FAILURE TO PROVIDE DUE PROCESS ON ISSUES RELATING TO WOOD'S MENTAL ILLNESS
"We applaud the
The Federal District Court authorized an attorney and the assistance of mental health experts, pointing out that the Texas state courts had not complied with the basic due process that the United States Supreme Court required in another Texas case - that of Scott Panetti, a mentally ill death row inmate with a 20 year history of schizophrenia, who was permitted to represent himself at trial dressed in a purple cowboy costume.
In its 20-page order, the Court stated, "With all due respect, a system thatrequires an insane person to first make "a substantial showing" of his own lack of mental capacity without the assistance of counsel or a mental health expert, in order to obtain such assistance is, by definition, an insane system."
Prosecutors have indicated they will not appeal today's decision.
AND MORE: See Judge Orlando Garcia's 20-page order (pdf). Judge Garcia found that although "evidence of petitioner's alleged incompetence now before this Court is far from compelling,"
Petitioner's motion presents non-frivolous arguments suggesting petitioner currently lacks a rational understanding of the connection between his role in the offense and the punishment imposed upon him.
Another money quote:
The initial constitutional deficiency with what transpired during petitioner's latest state habeas corpus proceeding is that petitioner was afforded neither court-appointed counsel nor expert assistance to challenge his own competence. Instead, the State of Texas insisted an arguably insane death row inmate proceeding without the assistance of court-appointed counsel was required to satisfy the threshold requirement of Article 46.05 ... [which involves] arcane pleadings so intellectually challenging they test the skill of even the most seasoned attorney.
Finally, one of the flaws in
the Texas statutory definition of "incompetent to be executed" apparently applied by the state trial court during petitioner's most recent state habeas corpus proceeding suffers from the exact same constitutional defect identified by the Supreme Court when it struck down as too narrow two decades of Fifth Circuit precedent construing the Supreme Court's holding in Ford.
The Trial of Jeff Wood
By Christopher Hill, State Strategies Coordinator, ACLU Capital Punishment Project
In Franz Kafka’s novel, The Trial, the main character is prosecuted and executed for an unnamed crime. We like to think that this kind of absurd surrealism only happens in literature. But something similarly absurd is occurring in the
· ACLU's diary :: ::
·
Wood and Daniel Reneau drove to a convenience store which they had planned to rob. Reneau got out of the car by himself, walked into the store, and shot and killed Keeran. Reneau was executed for robbery and murder in 2002.
Wood was convicted under
Another surreal aspect to Wood’s case: In 2007, the Board of Pardons and Parole recommended to Texas Governor Rick Perry that he stay the execution of Kenneth Foster. Like Wood, Foster was also tried under the Law of Parties because he was the driver when a murder was committed. Also like Wood, Foster neither killed nor intended to kill. Governor Perry commuted Foster’s sentence stating that it was unfair that he was tried with the person who actually committed the murder.
In Wood’s case, however, the Board of Pardons and Parole inexplicably and unanimously voted against commutation. Thankfully, a court stepped to stop the execution and order a mental evaluation. This does not mean the process in not any less absurd. In fact, it proves the point. A jury once found Wood incompetent to stand trial in the first place. He was later found competent but he refused to allow his lawyers to put on a defense. He was hours from an execution just to get back to where he was when the court process began.
The Kafkaesque is not limited to
These cases provide further evidence that not only is the death penalty fraught with error and basic unfairness, but it is the height of absurdity.
Federal Judge Sharply Criticizes
Posted: August 22, 2008
Jeff Wood’s execution was stayed with only hours remaining by U.S. District Court Judge Orlando Garcia of San Antonio. The judge chastised the
Posted by artnexus under Constitution, culture, thoughts | Tags: criminal injustice, death penalty, execution, Jeff Wood, law of parties |
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While support for the death penalty is high in
In the same vein, a NYT article from September 22, 2000 concludes that states with no death penalty share lower homicide rates. If you want to move to one of these states, you can choose between
In a 20-page decision you can read here, Federal Judge Orlando Garcia granted Jeff Wood a Stay of Execution, putting of a death sentence that was to have been carried out yesterday. Judge Garcia called the death penalty system in the State of
With all due respect, a system which requires an insane person to make “substantial showing” of his own lack of mental capacity without the assistance of counsel or a mental health expert, in order to obtain assistance is, by definition, an insane system.
It is inconsistent with the mandates of both Panetti and Ford for the state of Texas to deny an indigent death row inmate asserting a claim that he is incompetent to be executed the assistance of counsel until said inmate first satisfies arcane pleadings requirements so intellectually challenging they test the skill of even the most seasoned attorney
The Texas Moratorium Network is posting a piece from the Houston Chronicle reporting that Wood’s lawyers will have to submit an evaluation on his mental state from mental health experts by January 2009. Truly distrubing are the comments to the article on the Chronicle website. They spout the usual misinformation about the death penalty being a deterent (it can’t be or no one would commit capital crimes, but capital crimes are not commited by rational thinking people therefore the deterent effect is useless). Most striking however is the example of what type of society we create when we approve of state sponsored killing. When we approve of killing, which we exemplify by executions, it manifests itself in the attitudes demonstrated by the commentators to the Chronicle’s article. There is little or no understanding or sympathy for the nuance of the Wood case, there is pride in the fact that
A few people have asked me why I am so interested in this case and in capital punishment. That’s a fair question. My interest began while doing my college internship for Amnesty International. One of the events I worked on was the first national student (high school and college) conference on the aboltion of the death of penalty. This was held at
The death penalty is lowest common denominator. It uses to killing to say killing or other violent crime is wrong. The old childhood proverb is correct, however, two wrongs don’t make a right.
The death penalty is throwing our hands up in the air as a society and saying we give up, there is nothing we can do, but execute people we don’t like (because they are bad). In essence this is what Hitler did. We dehumanize criminals, Nazis dehumanized innocents, but once a society allows dehumanization, the process expands, it doesn’t contract. Notice how our society now dehumanizes terrorists and by extention, anyone who “looks like” a terrorist?
There is no way to have a fool-proof death penalty system and too many innocent people are executed. It got so bad in
David Chandler at Progressive Writers Bloc brings up some of my favorite points in interesting ways:
The geography of executions is telling. The densely populated Northeast (more people, more crime?) has the lowest murder rate nationally and has executed only 3 people since 1976. The Western states have executed 59, the Midwest 96, and the South 735.
Hand in hand with racial discrimination is economic discrimination. In
The reason that is closest to my heart for opposing the death penalty is that it is about retribution, not restoration. Currently our criminal justice system is one based solely on handing out punishment, but punishing wrong doing does not always make whole. Making whole requires restoration. I’m not sure that there is a way to make completely whole victims of violent crime, but I am certain it needs to go beyond just punishing the criminal. It must involve forgiveness, making amends, creating a system and a society that is better at recognizing and caring for pain and suffering and I don’t see our current system, however full of bravado or however strong it may appear to execute someone, doing that.
Again, David Chandler,
The death penalty is based on the concept of retribution: “eye for eye, tooth for tooth, life for life.” Retribution is not about protecting society. That is accomplished once the criminal is imprisoned. Rather, it is a way of collectively venting our anger. When we have been wronged we have an urge to strike back and make the offender suffer. When someone is murdered we feel we owe it to the family of the victim to avenge the death of their loved one. But vengeance cannot reverse the original act or heal the pain. Instead it arouses and legitimizes our own murderous impulses. Vengeance does violence to the soul and perpetuates violence in society.
Retribution is Biblical, but so is its antithesis. When Jesus was asked whether a woman taken in adultery should be stoned to death in accordance with the Mosaic law, he responded simply, “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone….” By his response he rejects the entire concept of retribution. All of us, both accusers and accused, are flawed human beings, so mercy, not retribution, is appropriate. Jesus changes the focus to restoration and healing.
Executing people is enacting revenge on a societal scale. There isn’t a person among us who wouldn’t feel some pull for revenge if she or he were the victim of violent crime, but that doesn’t mean it is the best response. Most of the rest of world has given up on this, frankly, barbaric practice of executing other human beings. The leading executing countries in the world are
[The death penalty] is hurtful to us and it diminishes us. We become more and more desensitized. Where do we stop? How do we decide who lives and who dies? We have put ourselves on a very slippery slope.
- Bishop Edmond Carmody of Texas
The majority of those on death row are poor, powerless, and educationally deprived. Almost 50 percent come from minority groups. This reflects the broad inequities within our society, and the inequity with which the ultimate is applied. This alone is sufficient reason for opposing [the death penalty] as immoral and unjust.
– General Board of the American Baptist Churches, Resolution on Capital Punishment, passed June 1977.
[Capital punishment is a] cruel hoax that is sold to the families of victims. They are so vulnerable, the easiest thing to sell them is anger. It’s the biggest disservice we can do to them.
– Rabbi Alan Lew, Spiritual leader of Congregation Beth Sholom, San Francisco.
The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. … In fact, violence merely increases hate. … Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars.
Make your way to death row and speak with the tragic victims of criminality. As they prepare to make their pathetic walk to the electric chair, their hopeless cry is that society will not forgive. Capital punishment is society’s final assertion that it will not forgive.
I do not think God approves the death penalty for any crime - rape and murder included. Capital punishment is against the best judgment of modern criminology and, above all, against the highest expression of love in the nature of God.
I should be on the front line for those advocating the death penalty, [but] we have always been consistently against the death penalty.
– Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., pastor, pivotal figure in the Civil Rights Movement.
I oppose the death penalty as I oppose all murder, as I oppose the imposition of suffering on all beings through the action of the individual, group, or state. My opposition is based on simply my own choice. It does not rely on any scriptural command of my tradition, any dogma, any external coercion or any commandment from above. My opposition is my responsibility, it is my “ability-to-respond.” Who I am is who I choose to be, consciously and deliberately — I am not who I am told to be. I choose for myself to adhere the First Precept of Buddhism that goes something like this: “I am reverential and mindful of all life, I am not violent and I do not kill”.
– Venerable Kobutsu Malone, zenji - American Rinzai Zen Buddhist priest, volunteer death row chaplain and social justice activist.
I don’t want a moratorium on the death penalty. I want the abolition of it. I can’t understand why a country that’s so committed to human rights doesn’t find the death penalty an obscenity.»«I am passionately opposed to the death penalty for anyone … I think, myself, that it is an obscenity … that brutalizes society.
– Desmond Tutu, South African Archbishop, Nobel Peace Prize winner, about the death penalty in the
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Wednesday, August 13, 2008 | |||||||||||
| An execution last month in Mississippi and another scheduled for this month in Texas have reignited a debate over whether the death penalty should be given to those who participate in killings — but do not personally carry them out. Dale Bishop was executed July 23 in
Bishop and Wood both were convicted under little-known state laws that allow accomplices in some felonies that result in murder to be prosecuted as killers — even if they were not directly responsible for killing anyone. The laws are part of a broader legal principle in the
Of the 46 states with the felony murder rule, 24 allow prosecutors to use it to seek the death penalty for those not directly responsible for murder, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit organization that opposes capital punishment. But the center says it is very rare for states to execute accomplices: by its tally, Bishop became only the eighth person in the past 30 years — and the first since 1996 — to be put to death for a murder he did not commit or order (such as commissioned killings, which are counted separately). Wood, in Civil libertarians, trial lawyers and others have attacked the felony murder rule as an egregious example of unequal justice — particularly when it involves the ultimate punishment for accomplices. While the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1980s upheld the death penalty for accomplices if they intended their crimes to result in death or displayed “reckless indifference to human life,” critics of the rule say it is often impossible to know the intentions of criminals and that it can result in overly tough sentences. Murder accomplices like Bishop, they say, should never receive tougher penalties than those actually responsible for murder. But supporters of the rule say states should be authorized to execute felons who knowingly participated in dangerous crimes in which death is a likely and often foreseeable outcome, such as burglary, robbery and rape. Many backers say it can serve as a deterrent to committing such crimes.
In
Wood’s lawyers also are comparing his case to that of Kenneth Foster, another Scott Cobb, director of the anti-death penalty Texas Moratorium Network and an organizer of public rallies in support of Wood and against the state’s felony murder rule, said he hopes authorities will spare the inmate. He said he is encouraged because Perry has proven to be “in tune with public opinion, and he’s aware that public opinion doesn’t support killing someone who has such a diminished role as an accomplice.” But others are pushing for the execution to proceed. The prosecutor who won the capital conviction against Wood, Kerr County Assistant District Attorney Lucy Wilke, has petitioned the state Board of Pardons and Paroles to deny his request for commutation, calling Wood the “mastermind” of the convenience store robbery and murder. In “He should be given life without parole in a maximum-security unit, and perhaps he could serve his time with the man who pulled the trigger,” Grisham said in a statement on his Web site. The debate in “The juxtaposition of one man who did not kill being executed and another man who did kill being pardoned just stuck in people’s craw,” said Warren Yoder, executive director of the Public Policy Center of Mississippi. But Pete Smith, a spokesman for Barbour, stressed that the governor neither pardoned Graham nor commuted his sentence. “What he did,” Smith said in a telephone interview with Stateline.org, “was issue an indefinite suspension of the sentence” that can be revoked anytime Graham violates the conditions of his release. Smith said the governor, a capital punishment supporter, had no comment on his refusal to spare Bishop. Beyond In But many prosecutors and victims’ advocates say cases like Holle’s are far from the norm, and they argue that the felony murder rule is an important tool allowing prosecutors to punish criminals who participate in exceptionally dangerous crimes. “What do you think is going to happen when a guy goes into a convenience store to rob it and he’s armed with a gun, and your job is to help him commit that crime?” said Mary Lou Leary, executive director of the National Center for Victims of Crime. “It’s a very high-risk activity.” See Related Stories: Contact John Gramlich at jgramlich@stateline.org. | |||||||||||
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Jeff Wood Didn't Kill Kris Keeran, but He Is Set to Be Executed for Keeran's Death
By SCOTT MICHELS
Aug. 8, 2008
(Courtesy of Kristin Wood)
Jeff 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 Jan. 2, 1996. Reneau was executed in 2002.
Barring a commutation from the governor, Wood, 35, will be put to death Aug. 21.
Wood was the getaway driver while Reneau robbed the Kerrvill,
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 -- he claimed only after Reneau forced him to do so at gunpoint.
Wood was convicted under a
Though most states have similar laws, often called felony murder statutes, they are rarely used in death penalty cases. There have been eight such executions, excluding murder-for-hire cases, since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, according to the
"It's terribly risky to allow the death penalty to be imposed where the jury has to draw inferences about what was in the defendant's mind," said Owen. "There are serious questions about whether a getaway driver who might have anticipated that a death would take place should be death penalty eligible."
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Will an unjust law claim another victim?
Bryan McCann of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty explains that Texas' Law of Parties--under which defendants can be held responsible for murder just by being at the scene--is poised to take another life.
August 5, 2008
Texas activists celebrate after Kenneth Foster Jr. was given clemency hours before his scheduled execution (Matthew Beamesderfer | SW)
AT THIS time last year, the grassroots campaign to save Texas death row inmate Kenneth Foster Jr. was in full swing.
Kenneth had been sentenced to death in 1997 for driving the car Mauriceo Brown exited one night in 1996 to shoot and kill Michael LaHood Jr. He was convicted under the Texas Law of Parties, which allows prosecutors to treat those physically present at the scene of a murder as if they had pulled the trigger. Kenneth had no idea a murder was going to take place, yet he was tried alongside Brown for capital murder.
The Save Kenneth Foster Campaign won a steady stream of editorial support from Texas newspapers, and there was a palpable sense that our coalition of family and activists was having an impact. One month later, hours before Kenneth was to receive lethal injection for driving a car, we learned that Gov. Rick Perry, who presided over more executions than any governor in American history, was commuting Kenneth's sentence.
We won. Perry even expressed misgivings about a "Texas law that allows capital murder defendants to be tried simultaneously," adding, "it is an issue I think the legislature should examine."
In spite of Perry's reflections on that joyful day last August, Texas is again poised to execute a man who killed nobody.
What you can do
For information on the case and how you can get involved, visit the Save Jeff Wood Web site. You can sign an Internet petition for Jeff Wood and send a letter to Rick Perry and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles.
Kenneth Foster Jr. continues his fight for freedom and against the death penalty--you can find out more at the Free Kenneth Foster Web site, as well as the Death Row Inner-Communalist Vanguard Engagement Web site.
Jeff Wood is slated to enter the death chamber on August 21, 2008 for the 1996 shooting death of a gas station clerk. Jeff sat in a car while another man, Daniel Reneau, entered a gas station and held up the attendant, Kris Keeran. According to the Save Jeff Wood Web site, when Keeran didn't move quickly enough, Reneau shot and killed him.
Hearing the shot, Jeff entered the gas station, saw Keeran's body and then discovered Reneau removing the gas station safe. According to the Web site, Reneau ordered Jeff at gunpoint to remove the surveillance tape and drive the getaway car. Jeff was also under the impression that the robbery--which had been planned for the day prior with the cooperation of station employees--had been called off.
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BUT WHO needs evidence when you can exploit a defendant's weaknesses? Jeff has a well-documented history of mental illness. Physically and emotionally abused as a child, Jeff's condition makes him vulnerable to aggressive behavior from others. Even during the planning stages of the robbery, Reneau threatened to kill Jeff's family if he didn't cooperate.
Police interrogated Jeff without counsel and kept him awake for hours until he issued a confession he would later recant. Though Jeff was initially found mentally unfit to stand trial and sent to a mental hospital, it took, according to the court system, only a couple of weeks for him to miraculously reverse a lifetime of mental illness and become "trial ready."
Jeff's court-appointed lawyer neglected to call any witnesses during the punishment phase of the trial. In fact, like nearly all inmates on death row in the U.S., Jeff is there, in large part, because he couldn't afford adequate representation.
Even members of Kris Keeran's family oppose Jeff's execution. Keeran's cousin, Amanda Smith, has said, "It's insane to kill another person who did not kill Kris." Keeran's father is a death penalty opponent who spoke out against Reneau's execution in 2006.
Inspired by last summer's victory in Kenneth Foster's case, Jeff's own family has taken a leading role in fighting his execution. Along with anti-death penalty groups like the Texas Moratorium Network, Texas Students Against the Death Penalty and the Campaign to End the Death Penalty, they are organizing rallies in San Antonio and Austin to get the word out. Jeff's supporters have also circulated a petition and initiated a letter drive to make the case for clemency.
Kenneth's case said a lot about the hypocritical core of the death penalty. We're told that capital punishment is reserved for the worst of the worst. Yet Kenneth was waiting to die for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
We're also told that the death penalty is intended to protect vulnerable citizens from violent people. But in the Jeff Woods case, we see a system ready to exploit a mentally ill man's vulnerabilities in order to secure a conviction.
Last summer, we showed that we could stop an execution in the belly of the beast and make a right winger like Perry admit the truth about a particularly draconian law. Now it's time to make Perry live up to his words and stop the execution of Jeff Wood.
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SAN ANTONIO -- Family and friends of a death row inmate protested his scheduled execution Saturday at Alamo Plaza.
The "Save Jeff Wood Rally" was aimed at collecting signatures and urging people to write to Gov. Rick Perry to stop Wood's execution, which is scheduled for Aug. 21.
Wood was sentenced to die by lethal injection for taking part in the slaying of a gas station clerk 12 years ago. Wood was sitting in the killer's pickup truck and claimed he didn't know what happened, but he was convicted under the law of parties in Texas.
"They want to kill someone who didn't kill anyone," said Kristin Wood, the death row inmate's wife. "The guy who actually did the murder in this case, he got executed in 2002, so they already got the killer and now they want to kill my husband, too."
In 2007, Kenneth Foster, a death row inmate who was convicted under the law of parties had his sentenced changed to life in prison hours before his scheduled execution.
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was neither in the store when the killing began nor fired the fatal shot did not mean he was not equally liable for Keeran's murder, the prosecution argued.
But Wood's lawyers, Scott Sullivan and Jared Tyler (with the Texas Defender Service), argue that Wood did not plan to rob the store and, in fact, had no idea Reneau planned to do so – nor, they say, did Wood know Reneau was carrying a gun. Indeed, it isn't clear that Wood had any idea what Reneau would do, although it does appear Wood was privy to a plan hatched by Reneau and Texaco store manager Bill Bunker to lift the post-holiday cash. Wood's sister, Terri Been, says that Keeran initially was in on the plan, but ultimately, she says, Wood and Keeran pulled out, followe
The Guardian in England has a column today about Jeff Wood.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/aug/14/usa.internationalcrime
Texans - or at least governor Rick Perry and his supporters - seem to love the death penalty almost as much as flying the state flag. And last week, the good ol' Texan bloodlust came under international scrutiny once again when the state put to death a man born in Mexico, where capital punishment is prohibited.
During the trial of death row inmate José Ernesto Medellín, he was not given the opportunity to seek legal help from Mexican consulates, a right granted under the 1963 Vienna Convention. Appeals from all over the world - including one from the UN's International Court of Justice and another from President Bush himself - pointed out the discrepancy and asked the state to delay the execution till Medellín's case could be further reviewed. But Perry refused to put on the brakes, and Medellín died of a lethal injection on August 6.
"Texans are doing just fine governing Texas," Perry said last year in response to the European Union's request that he reconsider another death row case involving a young man who had never been accused of directly participating in the murder to which he was linked. Given Perry's audacity, perhaps it's no surprise he has single-handedly overseen more executions than any other governor in the country since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. He also vetoed a ban on the execution of mentally handicapped inmates in 2002. And since 1976, Texas has carried out more executions than any other state: 409 - more than four times as many as Virginia, its nearest competitor, with 99.
At the same time, it's not that difficult to understand why Perry might not have been terribly sympathetic to Medellín: There seems to be no question that the Mexican took part in the raping and killing of two teenage girls in 1993 as part of a gang initiation rite. But the story of a young man named Jeff Wood, set to be put to death on August 21, more poignantly highlights the injustices of the Texan judicial system.
Despite the fact that the death penalty is supposedly reserved for only the most heinous crimes, Wood is sentenced to death for a murder that prosecutors have never accused him of committing - one that took place when he wasn't even in the same building. Rather, he was outside in a gas station parking lot, waiting in a pick-up truck for his buddy, Daniel Reneau, to come out of a road-side store with drinks and snacks. Wood contends that he didn't know Reneau was planning to rob the store - a frequent hang-out spot for the two of them - and that he also had no idea Reneau was going to murder the store clerk, Kris Keeran, a friend of both men.
But after hearing a shot ring out on the morning of January 2, 1996, Wood ran inside and saw Keeran laying dead from a single .22-calibre bullet that entered between his eye and his nose. Reneau was holding the gun, which he then turned on Wood, ordering him to grab the store's surveillance video. Wood - who suffers from learning disabilities and mental problems as a result of severe physical abuse during his childhood - complied. Reneau took the store's safe, and the two of them fled to Wood's brother house.
Wood and Reneau had talked with the manager of the store about robbing the place on New Year's Day, when the register would be full of money from the night before. But after Wood backed out, he assumed, since he heard no more about it, that the robbery plan was kaput. Instead, Reneau decided to go through with it on his own. Wood contends he had no idea Reneau was even packing a gun at the time of the robbery.
Reneau was executed for the murder in 2002. But thanks to the Texas "Law of Parties", anyone who conspires with another person or a group to commit one crime (like robbery) and happens to commit another crime in the process (like murder) can be found guilty of the secondary crime - even if the individual in question wasn't directly involved in planning it or carrying it out. And when the secondary crime is murder, that person can also be put to death for it. That's the state's justification for why Wood is on death row - except, of course, that Wood claims he wasn't involved in planning the robbery and that he would never have helped Reneau try to get away with it if Reneau hadn't trained a gun on him. As such, there's been a huge public outcry in support of Wood; the second of two rallies this month to draw attention to his plight will take place on Saturday, August 16.
Wood's situation is similar to another recent case in Texas, that of Kenneth Foster - the one that drew the attention of the European Union. Like Wood, Foster did not participate in the actual murder he was sentenced to die for. Like Wood, Foster did not hold a gun at any point while the crime he was linked to was committed. Like Wood, Foster has maintained – convincingly - that he had no foreknowledge the murder was going to happen. Like Wood, Foster was forced to drive the "get-away" car.
Following demands from around the world that Texas review the Foster case, the Texas board of pardons and paroles recommended that his sentence be commuted - a rare occurrence. Even more unusually, Governor Perry actually took the board's advice and, three hours before Foster's execution was set to happen, stopped it: the first time in nearly seven years in office that he had done so (excluding cases in which Supreme Court rulings had barred the execution of juveniles and the mentally disabled).
Will Perry commute the sentence this time, for Wood, like he did for Foster? The cases are so similar that there seems to be hope that he will. Then again, when announcing his decision in the Foster case, Perry didn't mention how problematic the Law of Parties is; instead, he cited a procedural flaw. (Foster was tried simultaneously with the guy convicted of the actual murder; that's what Perry referred to after commuting his sentence.) So who knows.
But maybe Perry and the state of Texas should finally start to think about how unconstitutional it is to execute someone based on the Law of Parties. After all, in their 1982 ruling in the case of Enmund v Florida, the Supreme Court found it was unconstitutional to execute the driver of a get-away car in an armed robbery. The court's rationale was that the eighth amendment forbids imposing capital punishment on someone "who aids and abets a felony in the course of which a murder is committed by others but who does not himself kill, attempt to kill, or intend that a killing take place or that lethal force will be employed". Why can't Texas see that by using the "Law of Parties" as a justification for execution, they are not just aiding and abetting but planning and carrying out pre-meditated murders which should not be occurring - and contributing to a cycle of violence and injustice?
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http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/story?oid=oid:661192
BY JORDAN SMITH
Death penalty opponents rally Tuesday outside the Capitol. Photo by Sandy Carson
Since Texas reinstated the death penalty in 1976, only six people have been executed for a murder in which they did not directly participate, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. If Texas proceeds with the scheduled Aug. 21 execution of Jeff Wood, that number will climb to seven. Lawyers for the death row inmate, trying to spare their client that fate, are asking the Board of Pardons and Paroles to recommend commuting Wood's sentence to life in prison.
Wood was sentenced to die for the 1996 murder of his friend Kris Keeran, during a botched robbery of a Kerrville Texaco station. Wood did not fire the gun that killed Keeran and wasn't inside the gas station when another friend, Danny Reneau, fired the fatal shot into Keeran's head. (Reneau was executed in 2002.) Nonetheless, according to the state, Wood is responsible for Keeran's death and should be executed. Wood was convicted under the state's law of parties, a conspirator liability statute that posits that if two or more people plan to commit one crime but another crime occurs, each person is equally responsible for that crime, if it was foreseeable. The state argues that Wood hatched with Reneau the plan to rob the Texaco, where their friend Keeran worked, on Jan. 2, when a large amount of cash would still be on hand because of holiday bank closures. That Wood d by Bunker. As far as Wood knew, she says, the previous talk of a robbery was moot. "Mr. Wood undeniably shares responsibility for what happened to Mr. Keeran, and should be held accountable for his reckless acts, but no man ever deserves to die for another man's acts," Wood's attorneys wrote in his petition to the board, filed last week.
At Reneau's trial, the state argued that he was responsible for Keeran's murder and portrayed Wood as little more than a sap, steamrolled by the villainous Reneau. But at Wood's trial, prosecutors reversed their strategy, arguing that Wood deserved to die because he'd gotten Reneau to "do his dirty work." But the idea of Wood as "mastermind" baffles attorney Sullivan, who has represented Wood since 1998. "I've watched Jeff for ... nine years," he says. "This guy, his mental capacities are not sufficient to make him a mastermind." Wood was diagnosed with learning disabilities as a child, and school officials consistently categorized him as emotionally stunted. He always sought approval for his actions and, adds his family, was easily influenced by others. He was initially found incompetent to stand trial because he was incapable of helping his defenders. At the punishment phase of his trial, Wood tried to fire his attorneys, a request denied by the judge. Nonetheless, his trial attorneys followed Wood's orders: Not only did they withhold from the jury evidence of his troubled youth, but they also failed to cross-examine any state witnesses, including the wildly speculative testimony of Dr. James Grigson – derisively known by many, including colleagues in the psychiatric community, as "Dr. Death" for predictably offering testimony in capital cases that a defendant would pose a danger to society, one of the questions a jury must decide in order to impose a death sentence.
In Wood's case, Grigson testified the defendant would pose a continuing threat to society if sentenced to anything other than death. That was clear to him, he said, because Wood was a manipulative person who failed to wear a disguise during the Texaco robbery. "You have an individual that is a user or manipulator of other people, and I'm thinking particularly in terms of where you're planning the robbery for two weeks," he testified, responding to a "hypothetical" robbery-murder presented by prosecutors that mirrored closely most of the facts of the Keeran killing. "Surely, you would have thought in terms of using a mask or a disguise where you wouldn't have to kill somebody, so this was a deliberate and intentional act in terms of the clerk that was going to be killed." (Wood's attorneys assert in the clemency petition that Grigson should not have been allowed to testify, in part because of his 1995 ouster from the American Psychiatric Association and Texas Society of Psychiatric Physicians for "flagrant ethical violations" – a fact the jury did not know because neither of Wood's attorneys conducted any cross-examination.)
Sullivan and Tyler argue now that executing Wood for a murder he did not commit would undermine Texas' entire death penalty scheme. The U.S. Supreme Court, they note, has said, "When the law punishes by death, it risks its own sudden descent into brutality, transgressing the constitutional commitment to decency and restraint." If Wood is executed, they write, "that risk will have come to fruition, and we all will have taken a descent into brutality unworthy of the State of Texas."
The Board of Pardons and Paroles can vote either to recommend or deny clemency for Wood. If they vote to commute Wood's sentence to life in prison, Gov. Rick Perry has the power to accept or deny the recommendation.
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Jeffrey Wood
Scheduled for execution Aug. 21: Jeffrey Wood
Jeffrey Wood did not enter the Gold Star Texaco in Kerrville until after he heard the gunshots.
He was sitting in a pickup truck parked outside the gas station – almost a second home to him, his sister Terri Been says, a real hangout where Wood often went to socialize with friends who worked there, including clerk Kris Keeran – when he heard gunfire. He ran inside, where he found his friend Keeran slumped over near the counter, dead from a single .22-caliber round that caught him between his left eye and the bridge of his nose. Holding the gun was another friend, Danny Reneau. Wood was shocked. Reneau pointed the gun at Wood and barked an order for him to grab a video surveillance camera and VCR. Wood was afraid, he later told police, and did as he was told. Reneau removed the store safe and the pair fled to the home of Wood's brother in Devine.
Wood did not fire the fatal shot and did not participate in the robbery that preceded the Jan. 2, 1996, murder. Nonetheless, Wood was sentenced to die, based on the state's "law of parties," also known as the "conspirator liability" statute. The law provides that if two or more people agree to commit one crime but in the process commit another, each person is guilty of the crime committed – if the crime was "one that should have been anticipated." This is a more nebulous form of traditional accomplice liability (aiding and abetting) that requires the state to prove specific, individual culpability. The difference here is in intent and foresight: Accomplice liability requires intent; conspiracy requires only a finding that the crime was foreseeable.
Photo courtesy of The Wood Family
In Wood's case, the state argued that he had planned with Reneau to rob the Texaco and therefore was responsible for Keeran's death. But it isn't at all clear that Wood was planning to rob the store. Wood told police that he'd heard Reneau talking with someone else (the store manager, Been says) about a possible robbery – the place had taken in $17,000 over Christmas, and the pair speculated that a similarly hefty stash could be expected just after New Year's Eve, since the bank holiday would mean the money would not yet have been deposited – but Wood also said he believed the talk was "bullshit in the breeze." (Family members have said that Wood did initially talk about robbing the store, along with Reneau, the store manager, and Keeran, but insisted that Wood, Keeran, and the manager all dismissed the idea.)
Critics have argued that Texas' use of the law of parties unconstitutionally broadens the field of death-eligible defendants; the death penalty, they argue, should be reserved for the most culpable and most heinous crimes. In fact, Texas is the only state that uses a conspiracy statute to make defendants eligible for the death penalty. "To pass constitutional scrutiny," Wood's attorney Scott Sullivan argued on appeal, "a sentencing statute must not only narrow the class of persons eligible for the death penalty, it must also ensure sentencing decisions are based upon an individual inquiry" of culpability. Texas' law of parties fails to do that, he wrote. The state, however, argues that the law of parties is not implicated in a decision to impose death: "The Texas capital murder scheme does not allow an individual to be put to death merely for being a party because the law-of-parties cannot be applied in answering the special issues" that jurors must answer, argued then-Bexar Co. Assistant District Attorney Lucy Cavazos. A death sentence is assessed only if jurors find that a defendant would pose a continuing threat to society and that there is no mitigating evidence that might lessen the defendant's culpability. Yet Cavazos' argument evades the fact that without the law-of-parties, defendants like Wood wouldn't be eligible for death in the first place. The courts have sided with the state.
Wood's case is similar to that of Kenneth Foster, who was sentenced to death for the 1996 murder of Michael LaHood by a companion, based on the Bexar Co. district attorney's use of the conspiracy statute. Foster was scheduled to die last year but was spared when Gov. Rick Perry accepted the recommendation of the Board of Pardons and Paroles and commuted his sentence to life in prison. "I believe the right and just decision is to commute Foster's sentence," he said. Perry did not directly implicate the law of parties in explaining his decision but did raise the issue of culpability, saying he was "concerned" that state law allowed Foster to be tried jointly with triggerman Maurecio Brown.
Given the parallels between the Wood and Foster cases, Wood's supporters question how the state can execute Wood without further damaging the credibility of the Texas death system. (Indeed, Wood's sister, Been, argues that her brother is even less culpable of murder than was Foster.) "There will be a full package going to the governor, and I think you will see a lot of similarities between us and Foster," Sullivan said last week.
Wood's family and supporters also question whether Wood is actually competent to face execution. He was originally found incompetent to stand trial, because he could not adequately work with his attorneys and participate in his defense. During the sentencing phase, District Judge Stephen Ables ruled that Wood would not be allowed to fire his court-appointed lawyers and represent himself. Nonetheless, Wood would not allow his attorneys to present mitigating evidence – including evidence that Wood was abused as a child and had been diagnosed with serious learning disabilities. Moreover, school records show that Wood's maturity was notably retarded – school officials noted that although he looked his age, he behaved like a child, constantly sought approval for actions, and was easily led and influenced by others. The evidence further erodes Wood's culpability, Been argues. "Jeff was just dumb. He's so trusting of people and has to get burned in order to learn a lesson," she says. "He doesn't deserve to die."
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by duo | August 14, 2008 at 04:25 pm | 55 views | 2 comments by duo by duo
SOMETIMES YOUR CHILD could be with the wrong crowd. His friends could do things and your kid might be charged for a crime right along with them. Now imagine that your child has a mental disability. It is easy to lead a young man with learning disabilities into a bad situation. This allegedly happened to Jeff Wood, due for execution next week. If executed, Jeff will be the first person killed in ten (10) years for committing a murder that the condemned man was not even present to witness! Many people are working to save Jeff.
Jeff has mental and learning disabilities dating back to his childhood, problems that made him easy to be taken advantage of, not only by the shooter, but also by the prosecution in his case.
Jeff is on Texas Death Row with an execution date of <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 />August 21, 2008. He was charged under the Law of Parties, and was not the shooter in this crime, nor was he even in the building when the shooting took place. Furthermore, there was no way Jeff could anticipate that a murder would occur.
The actual shooter in this case, Daniel Reneau, has already been executed by the state of Texas.
In addition to the fact that Jeff did not commit or plan the murder, death penalty opponents maintain that there were several errors made at Jeff's trial, and as a direct result of these errors Jeff did not receive the fair trial he was entitled to.
For more information about Jeff's case, check out his website:
http://www.savejeffwood.com/
Jeff Wood's supporters have published two petitions to save his life. The first one is already closed in order to present it to the governor of Texas. Signatures are being solicited for the second one at the link below:
http://www.thepetit ionsite.com/ 2/save-jeff- wood-from- the-executioner
People who care about the incarcerated mentally ill are participating in the effort to save Jeff Wood.
Just last week, Texas Governor Rick Perry (pictured second) elected not act to halt Jose Medellin's execution despite a request by the World Court. Jose Medellin was a Mexican national who was never informed of his right to seek help from his consular regarding the charges against him. He was executed by the State of Texas on August 5. More about his case is available at this link:
http://www.nowpublic.com/world/texas-flouting-world-court
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PsychCentral has posted
its list of the ten best psychology videos available on the web. Below, we have posted links to the videos themselves. If viewers want a quick description of each clip, then read through the original post.
Top Ten Psychology Videos
1. An Unquiet Mind: Personal Reflections on Manic-Depressive Illness
2. The Stanford Prison Experiment
3. My Stroke of Insight
4. The Paradox of Choice
5. Trapped: Mental Illness in America’s Prisons
6. Teen Brain
7. Depression: Out of the Shadows
8. Thin
9. I Am Not Sick, I Don’t Need Help: Research on Poor Insight and How We Can Help
10. The Psychology of Global Warming
Many human rights advocates are working together to build a bridge over troubled waters for America's 1.25 million mental patients currently imprisoned for crimes resulting from their disabilities.
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Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. Matthew 22:37-40
Mary Neal
Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill
Website: http://wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/
___________________________________________________________________
By Dee, published Jul 21, 2008 Published Content: 168 Total Views: 194,598 Favorited By: 77 CPs Contact Subscribe Add to Favorites Rating: 4.9 of 5 Paige Lynn Wood holds a sign for the crowd to read, "If You Kill My Dad, Jeff Wood, Your Killing Me." Her dad Jeff Wood is scheduled to be executed by the state of Texas on August 2008. Paige was only about 3 years old when her dad was convicted for murder under the "Law of Parties" Statue in Texas for the murder of a store attendant. She is now 14.
Her plea for help can be read on a website constructed by Wood's family, "Jeffrey Wood has only one child and that is me. I have been without my father for many years, and I have suffered greatly because of this. I need my father. I need to be able to hug him, and to sit in his lap, and just talk when I need somebody. I have been deprived because of somebody else's crime. Should I continue to be punished? I have has a lot to deal with over these years. I have struggled in school, I have been alone, and I have done it all without my lifeline..my father. Please do not kill him, he did not kill anyone. He is a kind gentle man, and I need him. If you kill him, you are killing me."
Wood was convicted and sentenced to die under the "Law of Parties Statue" in Texas, where you are held responsible for someone else's actions of murder, despite the fact you never touched the gun, never pulled the trigger, or never knew the intentions of your codefendant. Wood's codefendant, Daniel Earl Reneau was executed on June 13, 2003.
Last year, Nydesha Foster, then 11 years old, daughter of former death row inmate Kenneth Foster also pleaded for the life of her father who was scheduled to be executed in Texas on August 30, 2007, and also under the same "Law of Parties" statue in Texas. Foster was convicted of murder and sentence to die by lethal injection for a murder that took place while he was seated in the car, quite a distance from the crime. Foster's family and supporters generated thousands of calls to the Governor and Texas Parole and Pardons resulting in a commutation of sentence for Foster. Foster is now serving time in a Texas prison. Wood's case has many similarities to that of Foster's. You can listen to Nydesha's pleas to save her father from execution here. _____________________________________________________________________________________
Last Friday, we set a goal of reaching 1,000 people signing the petition to Save Jeff Wood over the weekend. By Monday, more than 1,300 had signed the petition and more than 300 people took the time to write a personal letter to Governor Perry and the Board of Pardons and Paroles asking for clemency for Jeff Wood.
The new goal is to have 5,000 people sign the petition and 1,000 people send letters to Perry.
Here are a few of the pleas for clemency.
Dear Governor Perry, Chairwoman Owens and Members of the Board of Pardons and Paroles,
Please give clemency to Jeff Woods and commute his death sentence. Although he acted as an accessory to the robbery, he was not the actual murderer. The death penalty is too harsh of a sentence.
Pasadena, TX
Dear Governor Perry, Chairwoman Owens and Members of the Board of Pardons and Paroles,
The Law of Parties takes no account of individual action. Jeff Wood should not die because his partner in crime made a rash and tragic decision to which Wood did not contribute and could not control. The victim's family's support of commutation speaks volumes in this instance and should be taken into account.
New Haven, CT
Dear Governor Perry, Chairwoman Owens and Members of the Board of Pardons and Paroles,
Based on the circumstances of the crime and the extent of Mr. Wood's participation in it, it seems terribly unfair to put him to death. By any argument this sort of brutal disregard for the facts is certainly unconstitutional, it qualifies as unusual punishment. Whenever the law is abused for political or emotional purposes it weakens the respect for it. Please commute Mr. Wood's sentence to more appropriately punish him for his participation in the crime.
Livonia, MI
Dear Governor Perry, Chairwoman Owens and Members of the Board of Pardons and Paroles,
If the state wants to execute a citizen who commits a brutal murder, like Daniel Reneau did, that's fine. But to execute a citizen who did not commit murder, that's just WRONG Jeff Wood did not know that Reneau was going to kill this victim, so why should Mr. Wood be killed? It's true, that Mr. Wood should not have assisted Daniel Reneau in any way, and there should be consequences for this. But those consequences should not be dealth.
It's easy to go along with an execution, when it doesn't affect you or anyone in your family. But think of Jeff Wood, who is about to soon face his death, for waiting for the shooter. but having no idea that he would be killing Kris Keeran. He should face some consequences, not not the loss of his life. To kill Jeff Woods is just wrong.
Austin, TX
Dear Governor Perry, Chairwoman Owens and Members of the Board of Pardons and Paroles,
Please grant clemency to Mr. Jeffrey Wood. No person should be executed under the Law of Parties, if they did not actually cause the death of another individual. Gov. Perry did the right thing last year when he commuted the death sentence of Kenneth Foster, who also was sentenced under the Law of Parties.
Mr. Wood was not even inside of the store when the murder occurred, and he was clearly not the actual shooter. He surely did not intend, at any point, that another individual's life be lost that day, and his should not be taken in retribution. The person who DID cause this victim's death had already been executed by the State of Texas, so whatever retributive or deterrent value there is in capital punishment has already been served by this first execution.
Thank you for your consideration.
Ithaca, NY
Dear Governor Perry, Chairwoman Owens and Members of the Board of Pardons and Paroles,
Please do not execute Jeff Woods. Although he may have made a mistake, he does not deserve the death penalty for his conduct. Justice can be done without taking this harsh measure.
San Francisco, CA
I am writing to ask that you stop the execution of Jeffrey Wood. I know that you are aware of the arguments supporting the request that you stop the execution, so I will not repeat them so that I can make one simple point:
The man who shot Kris Keeran has already been executed. I ask that you show mercy and judgment in showing the world that Texas is not a blood-thirsty state that cannot differentiate between accomplices and actual wrongdoers.
Please be merciful.
El Paso, TX
Dear Governor Perry, Chairwoman Owens and Members of the Board of Pardons and Paroles,
Executing people under the law of parties is wrong and in my opinion, a gross violation of human rights. The law is intended to be used when 2 or more people conspire to commit murder. Which may sound reasonable; however, it is being used unreasonably against people who have not conspired to commit murder.
Jeff Wood is scheduled to die in August for a murder that he did not commit nor conspire to commit. In fact, the man who actually did do the killing, has already been executed by the state of Texas.
The law of parties is a poorly written law if it allows innocent people to be executed. This law should be thrown out due to the fact that it is terrible.
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Sentenced to Death in Tx Under Law of Parties, Jeff Wood, Like Kenneth Foster, Did Not Kill Anyone
Many newspapers wrote editorials urging Perry to commute Foster's death sentence, including the Dallas Morning News, which wrote in, "Not a Killer: Kenneth Foster does not deserve execution"
Ours is the only state in the country to apply the "law of parties" to capital cases, allowing accomplices to pay the ultimate penalty for a murder committed by another. Mr. Foster is a criminal. But he should not be put to death for a murder committed by someone else"
Now, Texas is set to execute another person who did not kill anyone but was sentenced to death under the Law of Parties.Jeff Wood is waiting to die on Texas Death Row with an execution date of August 21st, 2008. Jeff was charged under the Law of Parties and was not the shooter in this crime. Jeff did not know that the other person would commit a murder. The actual shooter in this case has already been executed by the state of Texas.
We need everyone to do two things, 1) write the Governor and the Board of Pardons and Paroles; and 2) Sign the online petition to stop the execution. Please do both actions.
It took over 17,000 people contacting Governor Perry and the Board of Pardons and Paroles to make a difference for Kenneth Foster last year. Please help save Jeff as Kenneth was saved.
The cousin of Kris Keeran (the murder victim) wants to save the life of Jeff Wood:
"My cousin was the person killed by Danny, not Jeff. I say this as a family member who realized long ago Jeff had no part in my cousin's murder and he shouldn't be executed. It's insane to kill another person who did not kill Kris. The video showed Jeff took no part in it. Jeff was one of my friends growing up and someone I think deserves a chance. If he didn't kill him, why should we kill Jeff? This is ridiculous."
- Amanda Smith, Texas
June 19, 2008
Don't know about Jeff Wood's case? Here is a short case summary:
At approximately 6:00 a.m. on Jan. 2, 1996, while Wood waited outside, Reneau entered the gas station with a gun and pointed it at Kris Keeran, the clerk standing behind the counter. Reneau ordered him to a back room. When he did not move quickly enough, Reneau fired one shot with a 22 caliber handgun that struck Keeran between the eyes. Death was almost instantaneous. Proceeding with the robbery, Reneau went into the back office and took a safe. When hearing the shot, Wood got out of the car to see what was going on. He walked by the door and looked through the glass. Then he went inside, and he looked over the counter and ran to the back, where Reneau was. Wood was then ordered, at gun point by Reneau, to get the surveillance video and to drive the getaway-car.
Additional facts:
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Many of you were among the more than 17,000 outraged citizens who successfully petitioned Texas Governor Rick Perry and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles last year demanding the commutation of the death sentence for Kenneth Foster.
Foster was convicted under Texas' notorious Law of Parties, under which the distinction between principal actor and accomplice in a crime is abolished. The law can impose the death penalty on anybody involved in a crime where a murder occurred whether a person had anything to do with the murder or not. (Texas is the only state that applies this statute in capital cases, making it the only place in the United States where a person can be factually innocent of murder and still face the death penalty.)
Now, Jeff Wood faces similar straits on Texas death row with an execution date of August 21. Having no prior criminal record, Wood was convicted and sentenced to die for killing a convenience store clerk during a January 1996 robbery in Kerrville, TX under the "Law of Parties." Wood was not the shooter in this case and he can reasonably claim that he had no idea that a murder would occur during what he says was meant to be a gas station robbery. The actual shooter in this case -- Daniel Earl Reneau -- was executed by the state of Texas more than six years ago.
Here are the facts:
At approximately 6:00 am on January 2, 1996, while Wood waited outside in a car, Daniel Earl Reneau entered the gas station with a gun and pointed it at Kris Keeran, the clerk standing behind the counter. At some point for some reason Reneau fired one shot with a 22 caliber handgun that struck Keeran between the eyes. Death was almost instantaneous. Continuing with the robbery, Reneau went into the back office and took a safe. When hearing the shot, Wood got out of the car to see what happened. Reneau then ordered Wood, at gun point, to get the surveillance video and to drive the getaway-car. Both men were arrested separately within 24 hours and gave confessions to the police. Wood, however, was forced into interrogation by the police with no attorney present and says he was kept awake the entire time and eventually broke down saying it was a planned robbery. He later revoked this statement.
Click here to ask Governor Perry and the Board of Pardons and Paroles to commute Wood's sentence and sign an online petition to stop the execution. I happen to be opposed to capital punishment in all instances but from any humane perspective state-sponsored killing of people we know did not commit murder should be way beyond the pale.
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Texas Gives Execution Date to Man Who Never Pulled the Trigger
By Dee, published Jun 20, 2008 Published Content: 156 Total Views: 170,847 Favorited By: 68 CPs Contact Subscribe Add to Favorites Rating: 4.7 of 5 Texas has issued a death warrent to a man who they know never killed anyone. Jeff Wood will be executed by the state of Texas on August 21, 2008. Another man, Wood's co-defendant Daniel Earl Reneau was executed in 2002 for the crime.
In an attempt to save her brothers life, Wood's sister Terri Been has created a website including facts and information about the case. Other members of his family including his father, wife, sterpmother, daughter, brothers and nephews have have all spoken out about Wood's innocence. Friends of Jeff have written on his behalf also.
Wood's along with co-defendant Reneau were convicted for the robbery and murder of a gas station attendant, Kris Keeran in 1996. According to the website, Wood's was outside when the shooting took place, and never touched the gun. When he heard the shot, he then "looked in the window," "he ran inside, to where his codefendant was and was ordered to get the surveillance tape and drive the car."
The website explains about other outstanding facts in this case including his rights being infringed, and his mental capacities. More information can be read here. A petition is circulating the Internet to be presented to Texas officials on his behalf, and members of his family urge everyone to sign it. The petition can be found on the website also. It currently has over 500 signatures, but needs many more.
Although Texas knows that Wood did not pull the trigger, did not murder anyone, he was convicted under what they call "The law of parties." A law that states you can be convicted of a crime for just being present at the crime. A law of "association." Texas is the only state with this law, and currently on Texas death row over 80 men wait their turn to die by lethal injection. Over 80 men innocent of murder. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________
| Jeff Wood set for execution on 8/23 in Texas « Thread Started on Jun 17, 2008, 10:24am » | ||
After losing a U.S. Supreme Court appeal earlier this year, a Kerrville man has been scheduled to die by lethal injection. Jeffery Lee Wood is expected to enter Texas' Death Chamber on Aug. 21, according to Lucy Wilke, assistant district attorney for the 216th Judicial District. In January, Supreme Court justices refused to hear the case of Wood, who was convicted of killing convenience store clerk Kriss Keeran, 31, during a 1996 robbery in Kerrville. Wood's roommate, Daniel Reneau, also was convicted in Keeran’s death and was executed in 2002. Evidence showed that Reneau entered the store at Texas 16 and Interstate 10 just before dawn on Jan. 2, 1996, and shot Keeran. Records show Wood was waiting outside the store and came in after Keeran was shot. Wood and Reneau then robbed the store of a video recorder with a tape showing the incident, a safe and more than $11,000 in cash and checks, according to reports. Keeran's body was found lying behind the counter with a single shot in the face from a .22-caliber pistol. Kerrville police linked the 2 men to the murder, and both were arrested within 24 hours. During his trial, Wood refused to allow any evidence on his behalf at the punishment phase. During his appeal, Wood claimed his trial attorneys were incompetent and that the trial judge violated his rights by not letting him represent himself. The appellate court upheld his conviction and sentencing in 2000, and in 2007, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals agreed. The setting of Wood's execution date was delayed when all executions were put on hold last September as the U.S. Supreme Court considered challenges to the lethal injection method. In April, the high court cleared the way for lethal injections to continue. (source: Kerrville Daily Times) | ||
By Dee, published Jul 24, 2008 Published Content: 168 Total Views: 194,598 Favorited By: 77 CPs Contact Subscribe Add to Favorites Rating: 4.8 of 5 While most children are spending their summer vacations camping, swimming, and having fun playing with their friends, there is one group of children in Texas spending their time bringing attention to the death penalty and executions in Texas.
These kids have formed their own group that they call "Kids Against The Death Penalty" Group members include, Gavin Been, President, Nick Been ,Vice President, Nathan Been 2nd VP, Carissa Bywater, Secretary, Cory Bywater, Paige Lynn Wood , Cynthya Dennison. Deanna Nickell, and Steven Been, board members. There are also a few more kids who just help out when needed. "We have 2 meetings a month for 2 hours unless something happens, and then we meet more." said Gavin Been, president of KADP.
They spend their time making posters, and trying to find ways to bring attention to the overwhelming number of executions that take place in Texas. Using the quote, "And A Child Shall Lead Them" they have created a Myspace, which they have decorated with peace signs. "We as children say: Killing of all kinds is wrong..that includes state sanctioned murder." The Myspace includes more photo's, videos and educational information about Capital Punishment.
They have rallied for Charles Dean Hood, and Jeff Wood, both with scheduled execution dates, and also for Karl Chamberlain and Derrick Sonnier, both recently executed by the state of Texas. Sonnier was executed on July 23, 2008 and Gavin said "we also were meeting for Derrick. We are very sad and mad that Texas killed him. Shame on them!"
The group plans on making tee shirts with slogans about the death sentence. "Right now we are meeting a lot so we can get stuff ready for Jeff's rally on the 2nd of August in San Antonio". Gavin is referring to Jeff Wood, a Texas inmate with an upcoming execution. Wood's case is in the public eye right now since he never touched the gun, and was convicted under Texas's "Law Of Parties."
I expect we will be hearing more about this group, "Kids Against The Death Penalty." After all, "Out of The Mouth of Babes," comes the truth.
Are We A Leader in Human Rights?
As Americans (and especially as Texans), we are taught (from kindergarten) that we are a nation who sets the Gold Standard for “human rights”.
I would like to challenge each and every one of you to truly give this some thought and consideration and then ask yourselves this:
How can we lead the way in Human Rights if we, as a state and/or a country, still glorify state-sanctioned killings? The death penalty (Also Known As: state-sanctioned killings) is a form of “punishment” that is being rejected by most of the modern, civilized, world but the United States continues to practice this form of torture with no remorse.
Currently the
Does this mean that everybody on death row is innocent? Of course not! However, the question we should be asking ourselves is: Do they deserve to die for their mistake? Does taking the life of a killer bring about justice, or does it only continue the cycle of violence? Doesn’t the death penalty make a killer of somebody? Does it matter that they get paid to “do their job”…of committing murder themselves? Wouldn’t that be considered contract killing, and shouldn’t they be charged with Capital Murder for accepting money to kill somebody?
The fact is we are all sinners, and in the eyes of the Lord no one sin is greater than another! James 2:8-13 states, “If you really keep the royal law found in scripture, love your neighbor as yourself, you are doing right. BUT if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers. For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. For he who said do not commit adultery also said do not murder. If you do not commit adultery, but do commit murder, you are a lawbreaker. Therefore, speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment!”
What does this mean? Simply stated, in God’s eyes, it doesn't matter which part of the law we break, we are all sinners. Therefore if we are 99% holy and 1% unholy we might as well be 100% unholy as there is no difference to God. So, as a community of Christians, it is our responsibility and moral obligation to bring the injustice(s) of the death penalty to the forefront of everybody’s attention because that is also murder. Did you know that nearly every single religion in the
There are alternatives to the death penalty! A prison sentence with restitution to the victim’s family (as the bible suggests) could be the answer. Other alternatives could or might include: a life sentence or a life sentence without the possibility of parole. These alternatives would not only end the cycle of killing (and thusly decrease the number of the “hidden victims” (such as the families of the Death Row inmates…remember they have wives, children, parents, and siblings who suffer greatly too!!!)); they would also be less costly! I know that many of you “taxpayers” might not believe that, but have you ever actually looked up and compared the costs of life imprisonment and the death penalty? Do you know what kind of money is shelled out for court costs, legal fees, appeals, etc? According to the Federal and State budget, cost analysis reports, and private research studies, it has been estimated that by the time someone is actually executed, we (the taxpayers) will have spent at least two to four times more on them than we would have had we put them in prison for life. One report reveals the average death penalty case (per offender) costs $1 million to $3 million dollars (many go as high as $7 million dollars) while housing an inmate for life on the other hand costs only about $500,000. The fact is capital murder trials are extremely expensive. Therefore, I challenge you to take a look, and research it for yourself! The morality of capital punishment is (unfortunately) an opinion, but the cost is an undeniable fact.
I also challenge each and every one of you to stand up for what is morally right!
International Human Rights Activist, Andre Latallade, also known as Capital-"X" has put together a cross-country walking campaign called “Walk 4 Life” in an attempt to bring awareness to the injustices of the death penalty. Capital ‘X’ began this “Walk 4 Life” campaign in Trenton, New Jersey (where the death penalty has recently been abolished) and will continue until he reaches the Governors mansion in Texas on May the 25th (which is approximately 1,700 miles). You have an opportunity to join “X” not only for the final leg of the walk (on the 25th), but also for the day in a peaceful protest at the state capital on the 26th. The meeting place (ending place of the walk on the 25th) will be the Governor’s Mansion in the centre of
We cannot afford for another innocent victim to fall prey to our “unfair and unjust system where money can buy you the best lawyer, and a positive outcome.”
Separately our voices are weak, but together we can make a difference!
Terri Been B.S., M.Ed
Sources:
_____________________________________________________________________________________ood's co-defendant Reneau has already been executed
The Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty is a grassroots Texas organization comprised of individuals and groups who work to end the death penalty in all cases, everywhere. We are an inclusive organization composed of human rights activists; death row prisoners and their families; crime victims and their families; persons working within the criminal justice system; and concerned citizens opposed to capital punishment.
Dear all, please read Terri's letter about her brother Jeff Wood and take
a time to sign the petition to save his life.
He is sentenced to die for a crime he did NOT commit and just like
Kenneth Foster he was sentenced under the law of parties.
Please help us!
************************
Please help Jeff Wood
Please sign petition at:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/save-jeff-wood-from-the-texas-executioner
Hello.
My name is Terri Been and I am a Texas republican who is AGAINST the
death penalty. I am sorry to say that it was not always this way as I
was raised to believe in the death penalty; BUT my views changed over
10 years ago when I was thrust unwillingly into the Texas Judicial
system; at which time my eyes were opened to the complete injustice of
our whole system.
See, I am the sister of a man wrongfully convicted under the law of
parties in Texas. This man's name is Jeffery Wood and he is set to die
on August 21st, 2008 for a murder he did NOT commit.
I am writing to you because I am feeling helpless, and I do not know
what I can do. These days, I find myself slave to the computer...at
first I was a slave to the computer waiting for the worst...to see my
brother's name upon the list of those waiting to be executed. That time
has come and gone, but I find myself still a slave to the computer in
hopes of finding people who can help us in our fight against the Texas
Judicial System.
With the execution date set less than 3 months from now, we are running
out of time. We are desperate for exposure with people who have some
kind of influence on the public, or people who know other people who
may be able to help. If you have any thoughts, ideas, or just anything
that may help...please feel free to get in touch with me.
We now have a homepage for Jeff in addition to the online petition that
is circulating, (which can be found on his homepage at the following
web address: www.freewebs.com/savejeffwood under the how to help section). I humbly ask you to help my family by
taking a few minutes of your time to read a few facts regarding Jeff's
case and to sign his petition that we will be sending the governor!
While you are on Jeff's Web Page, I also ask that you take an extra
minute or two to look at the other information we have in the how you
can help section. For those of you who are familiar with Kenneth
Foster's case (which is very similar to Jeff's case) it took their
family over 17,000 messages to the Governor and the Board of Pardons
and Paroles to get his sentence commuted to Life. This was accomplished
by sending petitions, faxes, letters, and by making phone calls. At
this point, I am getting a little worried because we only have 353
signatures on the petition, and while I am eternally grateful for every
single signature.I need more. I need calls, letters and faxes to go
along with the petition signatures.
I humbly ask that you help my family. Jeff is my baby brother and he
did not kill anybody! Please ask yourselves what you would do if you
were in my situation.
While I am trying to save my brother because he is innocent of murder,
I am fighting to abolish the death penalty completely. In addition to
the protesting and campaigning my family and I have been doing with
Capital X lately (not only for my brother, but for all who face the
Death Penalty), I wrote an editorial about the death penalty and had it
published in the Lampasas and Killeen newspapers. This is posted as a
bulletin on my page and is entitled.Are we a leader in Human Rights.
(It is not about Jeff, but the death penalty in general. Please feel
free to repost this document if you feel compelled to do so.) Also,
please take a few minutes to look at the few videos I have on my
page.they are very powerful clips and will make you think...maybe even
cry.
If you do decide that you are interested in helping us save my
brother's life; please forward this to as many people as you know. I
need at least 1000 signatures on the petition before we can send it in.
And again, I am also desperate for letters, and faxes to be sent to the
governor and the Texas Pardons and Parole Board as well.
I feel that the more who know about this and participate in it, the
better it will be for all inmates who face death, not just my brother.
Up until this point, we have done what we have been told to do...'sit
back, and let the system work.' BUT the system has failed my brother,
failed his daughter, and failed those of us who love him.Now we are
just desperate!
Your help, guidance, and consideration to this matter will be greatly
appreciated. ..more than you will ever know!
Please feel free to contact me if you need to, but if you could pass on
that info I would be extremely appreciative!
I thank you in advance for your time and attention to this matter!
Again, your help will be greatly appreciated! God Bless You All and
thank you for all that you do!!!!
In struggle,
Terri Been B.S., M. Ed
Athletic Director
mystrus@hotmail.com
P.S. I am very tired and worn out, so please forgive any grammatical or
spelling errors as I just cannot seem to think these days!
Here is one of the comments from the on-line petition:
(This comment comes from a man whom I do do not know, and he is
pro-death penalty, but he was interested enough to do the research on
it before he signed it...please read...)
Jun 9, 2008, Jack Kelley, Texas
Yes, I am very much in favor of the death penalty. But this case does
not warrant execution. This man was outside of the store in the car,
when his partner committed murder inside the store. I researched the
case, including Wood's appeal, on official State of Texas websites. I
showed it to an excellent attorney who told me that Wood's
representation was lacking, and on the merits, this man should not have
gotten the death penalty, nor should the death penalty have been upheld
on appeal.
____________________________________________________________________________________
The big news this past week in the campaign for Travis County District Attorney is that there is now one candidate in the race who publicly opposes the death penalty.
Rick Reed has said:
“I have decided to publicly support a moratorium on the death penalty in Travis County. If I am elected District Attorney of Travis County I will not authorize the office to seek the death penalty during my tenure.”
Rick Reed’s opposition to the death penalty makes him stand out as the most progressive candidate in a race with three other candidates who all support the death penalty. A stance against the death penalty in a race for District Attorney in Travis County is a perfect fit of issue, office and location.
The next district attorney can unilateraly end the use of the death penalty within Travis County by not seeking the death penalty and instead using life without parole as an alternative.
If Reed remains the only candidate in the race who will not seek the death penalty, then it is likely that one of the pro-death penalty candidates will miss the runoff because of their support for the death penalty.
A campaign is a two-way learning process. It is a way for the community to get to know the candidates and it is a way for the candidates to learn about the community. Most of the people who will vote in the Democratic primary in Travis County on March 4th either believe that the death penalty system in Texas is broken and should not be used until steps are taken to address the problems, or they oppose the death penalty on principle in all cases and believe it should be abolished. Either way, there is likely to be a large amount of support in Austin for candidates who take principled stands against the death penalty in a race where the winner has the power to unilaterally end the use of the death penalty within Travis County.
It is not too late for the other candidates to take postitions on the death penalty that reflect the values and priorities of the progressive community from which they are seeking votes. All the candidates for Travis County District Attorney should follow Rick Reed’s example and say that they will not seek the death penalty.
Posted on January 28th, 2008 by admin
Filed under: Uncategorized __________________________________________________________________________
Saturday, 28 June 2008
Dear Friends,
I have just read and signed the petition: "SAVE JEFF WOOD FROM THE TEXAS EXECUTIONER!!".
Please take a moment to read about this important issue, and join me in signing the petition. It takes just 30 seconds, but can truly make a difference. We are trying to reach 5000 signatures - please sign here:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/save-jeff-wood-from-the-texas-executioner
Once you have signed, you can help even more by asking your friends and family to sign as well.
Thank you! Karen
Discuss this article on the forums. (0 posts)
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Texas Innocence Commission
By: Dallas Morning News
A poignant drama unfolded in the state Capitol last week that should have been witnessed by all Texans.
Nine men at a head table in the Senate chamber looked out at a sea of faces and shared stories of lost freedom. Unjustly convicted in Texas courts, each was locked away in prison until the truth of his innocence was established, most of them through DNA tests.
The first to speak, James Lee Woodard, lost 27 years after the travesty of a wrongful conviction in Dallas County. Brandon Moon spoke of his lost 17 years. And Charles Chatman, 27 years. James Curtis Giles, 10 years. Carlos Lavernia, 15 years. Alejandro Hernandez, 13 years. Billy James Smith, 19 years. James Waller, 10 years. Thomas McGowan Jr., 23 years.
Some told their stories with passion and resolve, others with sadness. The facts chill to the bone. They reveal how scant or sketchy evidence, faulty witness identification, faulty forensics and gamesmanship by prosecutors helped railroad innocent people ? and let the guilty get away.
"It was a nightmare," said Mr. McGowan, erroneously picked out of a photo lineup by a rape victim in Richardson in 1985. "It could happen to your kids; it could happen to you."
Lawmakers in Texas must do something about that ghastly possibility. Eight lawmakers were in the audience Thursday to hear the testimonials of the exonerated men. Also attending were legal experts, judges, police brass and other law enforcement officials.
They gathered at the invitation of Sen. Rodney Ellis of Houston, who has championed the forMation of a state innocence commission to dissect cases of exonerated people and recommend ways to improve the system. The concept is a sound one and has been adopted by at least five states.
It's needed badly in Texas, which has 33 DNA-established exonerations to date, more than any other state. Seventeen are from Dallas County, more than in any other U.S. county.
News flashes about Dallas cases obscure the fact that local exonerations would not be achieved were it not for the sound practice of storing biological evidence in all criminal cases. No other Texas county has done that; one can only imagine how many wrongly convicted people from the 253 other Texas counties have no shot at DNA exoneration. A special commission could recommend best practices for evidence storage, among a long list of other law enforcement procedures.
Credit goes to several local officials for attending Mr. Ellis' summit and pledging to work to improve justice. They include District Attorney Craig Watkins, Republican Sen. Bob Deuell, Democratic Rep. Terri Hodge, Democratic Rep. Paula Pierson, Dallas Assistant Police Chief Ron Waldrop and Richardson Police Chief Larry Zacharias. Two judges from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ? Barbara Hervey and Cheryl Johnson ? offered ideas.
We hope the list of participants reflects momentum for the Ellis proposal after years of indifference and hostility in the Legislature. His legislation cleared the Senate last year but was snuffed out in a House committee.
Roadblocks must be eliminated in next year's lawmaking session, and Mr. Ellis deserves robust support from the Dallas-area delegation.
In fact, a Dallas Republican should step forward to sponsor the bill in the House. That would provide the political and geographic balance to help Mr. Ellis, a Democrat, secure passage.
No county has borne more shame than Dallas County for the outrage of miscarriage of justice. No county has a greater responsibility to change Texas law to prevent tragic mistakes in the future.
Potential legal reforms
A state innocence commission could recommend best practices in these areas:
?Eyewitness identification and testimony
?Photo lineups
?Suspect interrogation
?Preservation of biological evidence
?Forensic technology
?Defendant's access to case files
?The right to competent defense counsel
?Ethical and legal responsibilities of prosecutors
Full post as published by Texas Death Penalty Blog on May 14, 2008 at 20:27:00.
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We held a meeting today with the family and friends of Jeff Wood. His lawyer participated by conference call. We learned more about the severe extent of Jeff's mental disability.
We decided to hold a rally on August 2 in
The death penalty is grossly out of proportion as a punishment for Jeff, since he did not kill anyone. According to its supporters, the death penalty is supposed to be reserved for the worst of the worst offenders. Jeff Wood is not even close to fitting that description. His sentence should be commuted to a term in prison. Jeff did not kill anyone. He is not a killer. Someone who did not kill should not be subject to the death penalty.
Please sign the petition for Jeff Wood.
Contact the Governor and the Board of Pardons and Paroles by clicking.
Jeff Wood was convicted under
Posted on July 7, 2008 by QuakerDave <script src="http://s.wordpress.com/wp-content/plugins/adverts/adsense.js?1"></script>
From Peter Rothberg at The Nation:
SAVE JEFF WOOD: Justice Kennedy’s June 25 opinion striking down the death penalty for child rapists followed the Supreme Court’s trend of narrow rulings that restrict, but do not abolish, capital punishment. Nonetheless, the decision’s essential principle - that only intentional first-degree murderers should face the death penalty - ought to increase scrutiny on Texas’ notorious “Law of Parties,” which allows the state to impose the death penalty on anyone involved in a crime that leads to murder, even if the accomplice had nothing to do with the murder itself.
Indeed, the life of Jeff Wood, who faces execution on August 21, may be at stake. Wood was involved in the murder of a convenience store clerk in 1996 - he drove the getaway car in what started as a robbery - but nobody, not even Texas prosecutors, asserts that he was the gunman; Wood maintains that the robbery was not planned. Readers are encouraged to petition Texas Governor Rick Perry to commute Wood’s sentence, as he did in the similar case of Kenneth Foster.
An online petition can be found at www.savejeffwood.com.
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| Remarks to the City Council |
| Written by DC Tedrow | |
| Wednesday, 09 July 2008 | |
The Corpus Christi Moratorium Committee made its presence known during the Citizens' Comments section of today's city council meeting. Afterward, I was interviewed by a reporter for KRIS, although so far I have not seen a story on TV or online. My three minutes' worth of comments were as follows (nearly verbatim): Good afternoon council members, My name is Matt Tedrow and I am a student, teacher, and, I must admit, an anti-death penalty activist. The United States is the only advanced industrial country that continues to execute people, and the international community has criticized the U.S. position for many years now. Only a week ago, United Nations human right expert Philip Alston called on the United States to ensure that the death penalty is applied fairly and justly in states where it is practiced. In his remarks, he singled out two states as especially problematic: Alabama and Texas. That Alston mentioned Texas is unsurprising. As the nation’s leading executer, its death penalty system is the most flawed. Even today, the innocent and mentally disabled are executed at an alarming rate, even though the Supreme Court has ruled it is unconstitutional to execute persons with mental retardation. In fact, Texas is only state in the country where a person can be found factually innocent of murder and still face the death penalty. According to section 7.02 of the Texas Penal Code, also known as the Law of Parties, “If, in the attempt to carry out a conspiracy to commit one felony, another felony is committed by one of the conspirators, all conspirators are guilty of the felony actually committed.” In other words, the law of parties has sentenced people to die on the basis of guilt-by-association. It has already been used to hand the death penalty down to men such as Kenneth Foster, who was sentenced to die for the murder of Michael LaHood, even though the actual gunman, Mauriceo Brown, forced Foster to drive the getaway car and was himself executed for the murder in 2006. Foster did not murder, intend to murder, or even know that a murder was about to take place, but the Law of Parties allowed for his death sentence. Fortunately for Kenneth Foster, his sentence was commuted at the very last minute, after 17,000 people contacted the Governor’s office to plead for his life. But it doesn’t end there. Jeff Wood is sentenced to die in August this year for the murder of Kris Keeran, who he did not kill, under similar circumstances. Today, there are several men on Texas’ death row who are either innocent, very likely to be innocent, or who received draconian sentences: Men such as Jeff Wood, Rob Will, Lester Leroy Bower, Rodney Reed, and others. My thoughts are with these men today, as they languish on death row awaiting punishments they surely do not deserve. Council members, thank you for listening to me today. I ask that you add our moratorium resolution to your next meeting’s agenda. |
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