Entries tagged with “Jeffery Wood”
Research
May 07, 2021
Texas House of Representatives Passes Bill to Limit Death-Penalty Eligibility for Defendants Who Do Not Kill
In an overwhelming bipartisan vote, the Texas House of Representatives has passed a bill that ends death-penalty liability under the state’s controversial “law of parties” for felony accomplices who neither kill nor intended that a killing take place and were minor participants in the conduct that led to the death of the victim. Currently, Texas law makes any participant in a felony criminally liable for the acts of everyone else involved in the crime, irrespective of how small a role he played…
Issues
Apr 02, 2020
STUDIES — Junk Psychological Science Continues to Infect Death-Penalty Determinations
Courts are failing badly in keeping junk psychological science out of the courtroom in criminal cases, permitting the admission of psychological tests that have never been reviewed for reliability and others that have been found unreliable, a recent study reports. Among the problematic tests, another group of psychologists write, is a “psychopathy checklist” commonly used by prosecutors to argue that a defendant poses a future danger to society and should be sentenced to death. The article…
Issues
Nov 27, 2018
Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Upholds Death Sentence Based on False Psychiatric Testimony
For the second time in less than six months, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (TCCA) has upheld a death sentence that the trial court, lawyers for the prosecution and defense, and mental health experts all agree should not be carried out. On November 21, 2018, in an unpublished and unsigned opinion that misspelled death-row prisoner Jeffery Wood’s name, the court rejected a recommendation by the Kerr County District Court to overturn Wood’s death sentence and grant him a new sentencing…
Issues
Dec 08, 2017
Texas District Attorney Asks State to Spare Life of Man She Prosecuted Under Controversial “Law of Parties”
The Texas prosecutor who sought and obtained the death penalty almost 20 years ago against Jeffery Wood (pictured), a man who never killed anyone, has now asked that his sentence be reduced to life in prison. In a letter to the Texas Board of Pardons and Parole, sent in August and obtained December 7 by the Texas Tribune, Kerr County District Attorney Lucy Wilke asked the board to recommend that Governor Greg Abbott grant Wood clemency and commute his sentence to life in prison. In 1998…
Issues
Jun 09, 2017
Duane Buck’s Lawyer Discusses How Future Dangerousness Taints Texas Death Penalty System
Thirty years ago, filmmaker Errol Morris, who directed the documentary “The Thin Blue Line,” helped to exonerate Texas death-row prisoner Dale Adams, falsely accused of murdering a police officer. During the course of making the film, Morris met the notorious Texas prosecution psychiatrist, Dr. James Grigson, who routinely testified that capital defendants — including the innocent Mr. Adams — posed a risk of future dangerousness. Morris recently interviewed Christina Swarns (pictured, center)…
Issues
Victims' Families
,Executions Overview
,Apr 10, 2017
Texas Court Stays Execution of Paul Storey Based on False Argument About Wishes of Victim’s Family
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has issued an order staying the scheduled April 12 execution of Paul Storey. The unpublished April 7 order sends Storey’s case back to the trial court to consider whether the prosecution knowingly presented false evidence about the victim’s family’s views on the death penalty. Storey had been scheduled to be executed on April 12. His lawyers argued that “the State denied him his right to due process because it argued “evidence it knew to be false” when…
Issues
Mar 09, 2017
LAW REVIEWS: Predictions of Future Dangerousness Contribute to Arbitrary Sentencing Decisions
In a new article for the Lewis & Clark Law Review, author Carla Edmondson argues that the future dangerousness inquiry that is implicit in capital setencing determinations “is a fundamentally flawed question that leads to arbitrary and capricious death sentences” and because of the “persistent influence of future dangerousness … renders the death penalty incompatible with the prohibitions of the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments on cruel and unusual punishment.” Edmonson’s article, Nothing is…
Issues
Dec 08, 2016
Experts Say Texas’ Future Dangerousness Concept Is Based on Junk Science
Since 1973, juries in Texas have had to determine whether a defendant presents a future danger to society before imposing a death sentence. But while they have found that each of the 244 men and women currently on the state’s death row poses “a continuing threat to society,” experts argue that juries cannot accurately predict a defendant’s future. According to Dr. Mark Cunningham, a psychologist and leading researcher on the issue of future dangerousness, “[j]uries show absolutely no…
Executions
Executions Overview
,Oct 13, 2016
Texas Executions Drop to Lowest Level in 20 Years
Texas is poised to have the fewest number of executions in 20 years. As of October, the state has executed seven prisoners in 2016, with just one more execution scheduled this calendar year. The total would mark the fewest executions in the state in any year since 1996. In that year, three people were executed, as legal challenges to a new state law billed as speeding up appeals put most executions on hold. Fifteen execution dates for 11 people have been stayed or halted in Texas this year.
Issues
Sep 14, 2016
New Podcast: Jeffery Wood and the Texas Law of Parties, With Expert Guest Kate Black
Today, DPIC launches a new podcast series, “Discussions With DPIC,” which will feature monthly, unscripted conversations with death penalty experts on a wide variety of topics. The inaugural episode features a conversation between Texas Defender Services staff attorney Kate Black (pictured) and DPIC host Anne Holsinger, who discuss the case of Jeffery Wood and Texas’ unusual legal doctrine known as the “law of parties.” Wood’s case garnered national media attention because he was sentenced to…
Research
Sep 14, 2016
Jeffrey Wood and the Texas Law of Parties
Today, DPIC launches a new podcast series, “Discussions With DPIC,” which will feature monthly, unscripted conversations with death penalty experts on a wide variety of topics. The inaugural episode features a conversation between Texas Defender Services staff attorney Kate Black and DPIC host Anne Holsinger, who discuss the case of Jeffrey Wood and Texas’ unusual legal doctrine known as the “law of parties.” Wood’s case garnered national media attention because he was sentenced to death…
Issues
New Voices
,Aug 19, 2016
Diverse Range of Voices Call for Sparing Jeff Wood, Who Never Killed Anyone, from Execution in Texas
As his August 24 execution date approaches, Jeffrey Wood’s case has garnered mounting attention from groups and individuals calling on the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles and Gov. Greg Abbott to commute Wood’s sentence. These diverse voices include a conservative Texas state representative, a group of evangelical leaders, and the editorial boards of the New York Times, the Washington Post, and several Texas newspapers, among others. Wood (pictured) was convicted under Texas’ “law of…
Issues
Aug 04, 2016
Texas Prisoner Who Did Not Kill Anyone Challenges Execution, Use of False Psychiatrist Testimony to Condemn Him to Die
Lawyers for Jeffery Wood (pictured), a Texas death row prisoner who is scheduled to be executed August 24 despite undisputed evidence that he has never killed anyone, have filed a new petition in state court challenging his death sentence on multiple grounds. They argue that Wood cannot be subject to the death penalty because he neither killed nor intended for anyone to be killed and was not even aware the robbery in which a codefendant killed a store clerk was going to occur. They also…
Issues
Aug 22, 2008
Federal Judge Sharply Criticizes Texas System in Ordering Stay of Execution
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…
Aug 19, 2008
NEW RESOURCES: Live Radio Show Covers Issues in Texas Executions
A new radio program, Execution Watch, is providing live coverage and commentary on days that Texas executes a death row inmate. Each show will air live starting at 6 pm Central Daylight Time at http://www.kpft.org or http://executionwatch.org with a wide variety of special guests and host Ray Hill. The programming is available through the Internet. On its upcoming broadcast, the show will cover issues related to the case of Jeffrey Wood, who is scheduled to be executed on Aug. 21. Wood was…
Issues
Aug 14, 2008
Upcoming Texas Execution Raises Concerns about Death Penalty for Accomplices
Jeffrey Wood is scheduled for execution on August 21 for a murder committed by another man during a botched robbery at a gas station. Wood did not fire the gun that killed the victim and was not inside the station when another man, Danny Reneau, committed the murder. At Reneau’s trial, the prosecution had argued that Reneau was the person chiefly responsible for the crime and that Wood’s role was secondary. The prosecution in Wood’s case changed their theory and argued that he was equally…