This morning's El Paso Times reports, "Convicted serial killer David Leonard Wood attends hearing on expanded appeal." It's written by Adriana M. Chávez.
Attorneys for convicted serial killer David Leonard Wood argued Tuesday that Wood is innocent in the deaths of six girls and women because recently conducted DNA tests were inconclusive or did not match his DNA.
A Dallas jury in 1992 convicted Wood of the murders of six teenage girls and young women whose bodies were found buried in the Northeast El Paso desert. All of them died in 1987 after Wood was paroled from prison for the second time on sex-assault convictions.
The same jury sentenced Wood to death.
Wood's execution was postponed two years ago after defense attorneys claimed Wood is mentally disabled. In 2002, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty should not be applied to mentally disabled people because it violates the Constitution.
But during a court hearing Tuesday, defense attorney Gregory Wiercioch of the Texas Defender Service argued that DNA evidence found on a yellow swimsuit belonging to victim Dawn Smith matched her and an unknown man. Two other tests, conducted on a piece of a blue-green blouse belonging to victim Rosa Casio and a fingernail belonging to victim Angelica Frausto proved inconclusive.
Wiercioch also argued the DNA tests may have proved Wood's innocence if they had been presented during his jury trial, which may be the basis for a new trial.
Visiting District Judge Bert Richardson of San Antonio may make a decision today on whether the DNA tests would have made a difference.
A preview of the hearing, "Convicted serial killer David Leonard Wood expands appeal; hearing to be held today," by Diana Washington Valdez appeared in the Tuesday edition of the Times.
Convicted serial killer David Leonard Wood has expanded his death penalty appeal to also having his 1992 capital murder verdict overturned.
Several records in his file that previously were unsealed show that he requested an expert review of DNA evidence from his trial, and for his investigators to interview witnesses and collect documents to prove that he is mentally retarded.
Wood will have a hearing Tuesday in the 171st District Court to determine his fate. He is expected to be present for the proceeding.
The Texas Criminal Court of Appeals granted Wood a stay of execution two years ago, a day before he was set to be executed by lethal injection.
And:
He also asked for forensic DNA testing of items pertaining to several of the 1987 victims, Frausto, Casio and Smith, as well as documents related to Salvador Martinez and Edward Dean Barton.
Martinez, an acquaintance of Wood's, did not pass a 1987 polygraph test about the disappearances and murders of young women in El Paso.
Barton, who resembled Wood, told the FBI in 1989 that he killed four women in the El Paso area between May and December 1987.
Earlier coverage of the case of David Leonard Wood is at the link.
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