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 Texas courts for their refusal last week to hire men­tal health experts to deter­mine whether Wood (pic­tured) was insane or appoint a lawyer to rep­re­sent him for a com­pe­ten­cy hear­ing. The state courts had ruled that Wood had to show he was insane before they would appoint a lawyer and a psy­chol­o­gist to help prove he was insane. Judge Garcia’s opin­ion said such a sys­tem is absurd, ​“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.”

In their appeal, Wood’s attor­neys argued he is too delu­sion­al to under­stand why he is to die. Attorney Scott Sullivan said, ​“He will become delu­sion­al and deny the appar­ent real­i­ty right in front of him,” adding that Wood believes he is the vic­tim of a Freemason con­spir­a­cy. In grant­i­ng the stay, the court not­ed that Wood’s bizarre state­ments at his tri­al and in prison, ​“at least arguably sug­gest the peti­tion­er lacks a ratio­nal under­stand­ing of the casu­al link between his role in his crim­i­nal offense and the rea­son he has been sen­tenced to death.”

Wood’s men­tal heath was severe enough that one jury found him incom­pe­tent to stand tri­al, and it was only after spend­ing time in a men­tal hos­pi­tal that he was found com­pe­tent by a sec­ond jury. Evidence of his delu­sions, emo­tion­al prob­lems, and men­tal health dif­fi­cul­ties were nev­er brought before the jury that sen­tenced him to death because he instruct­ed his lawyers not to present any evi­dence on his behalf. Judge Garcia said that such deci­sion-mak­ing was, ​“bizarre, seem­ing­ly para­noid and clear­ly sui­ci­dal.” Wood’s case has received sig­nif­i­cant atten­tion as he was sen­tenced to death under Texas’ ​“law of par­ties.” His part­ner in a rob­bery shot a vic­tim in a gas sta­tion while Wood was out­side in a car. It is rare for any­one to be exe­cut­ed in the U.S. who was not direct­ly involved in an actu­al mur­der.
(J. McKinley, ​“Federal judge, chastis­ing the Texas courts, orders a stay of exe­cu­tion,” New York Times, August 22, 2008). See Mental Illness and Crimes Punishable by Death.

Tags
Citation Guide