The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles is expected to announce its recommendation in the Jeff Wood case today. The Texas governor is not bound by a recommendation, but a Texas governor may only commute a death sentence upon a positive recommendation of the Board.
AP's Mike Graczyk reports, "Case of non-triggerman set to die raises questions," via the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
His lawyers don't dispute that convicted killer Jeffery Wood deserves punishment for his involvement in a robbery more than a dozen years ago where a clerk at a Texas Hill Country gas station convenience store was gunned down.
But Woods' attorneys and supporters argue he doesn't deserve to die for a murder that occurred while he was waiting in a car outside the store in Kerrville. They also point out that Daniel Reneau, the gunman who killed clerk Kriss Keeran with a fatal shot to the face, already has been executed.
"Someone answered for this in terms of the death penalty," attorney Scott Sullivan said. "A non-triggerman shouldn't get the death penalty."
Wood, who turned 35 Tuesday, was set for execution Thursday in a case that again put under scrutiny a unique Texas law that makes accomplices as culpable as the killer in a capital murder case.
Wood would be the ninth condemned prisoner put to death this year and the fifth this month in the nation's busiest capital punishment state. At least a dozen other Texas inmates have execution dates in the coming months.
Lawyers were in the courts seeking permission to hire mental health experts to pursue arguments that Wood is incompetent to be executed. They also were unsuccessful convincing the trial judge in the Wood's case to withdraw Thursday's execution date.
Sullivan said he would take the arguments to the appeals courts.
Attorneys also went to the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles seeking clemency for Wood.
Earlier StandDown coverage of the Wood case is here; Jeff Wood's clemency petition, here. A StandDown post on last year's commutation of Kenneth Foster is here. Our coverage of the Foster case is here. Two commentaries are:
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