AP reports, "Federal judge delays execution of condemned inmate," via the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
A federal judge has granted a request to delay the execution of condemned inmate Jeffery Wood.
Jeffery Wood had been set to be executed Thursday for taking part in a fatal 1996 convenience store robbery in the Texas Hill Country.
But a federal judge on Thursday 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.
At issue is Wood's competency to be executed. The Supreme Court established a standard in 1986, in Ford v. Wainwright. The Court revisited the issue last year in Panetti v. Quarterman.
This is from a news release issued by Texas Defender Service, which is involved in the Wood case:
Today, the Federal District Court granted a stay of execution in the case of Jeff Wood to allow the court to consider compelling evidence that Jeff Wood is too mentally ill to be executed. The Court held that the Texas state courts have not carefully reviewed the question of Wood's competence and that a stay of execution is necessary to ensure that Wood's mental health issues are fully presented and considered by the courts. The Court's Order Granting Stay of Execution is attached.
"We applaud the Federal District Court for upholding Jeff Wood's rudimentary due process right to have his competency evaluated," said Andrea Keilen, executive director of Texas Defender Service, who, along with attorney Scott Sullivan, are representing Mr. Wood.
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 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."
Prosecutors have indicated they will not appeal today's decision.
Earlier coverage of the Wood case is here. StandDown's mental illness index is here.
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