Texas court delays execution of man on death row for 32 years, days before he was set to die
An appeals court in Texas stopped the execution of a man who spent more than 30 years on death row and died after being fatal injections this week after six girls and young women killed were found buried in the desert near El Paso.
This is the second scheduled execution in the United States after a federal judge used nitrogen to stop Louisiana’s first death platoon execution, which will be held next week.
In Texas, the order was another probation for David Leonard Wood, who was not eligible for execution in 2009 after his claim was stopped due to his intellectual disability.
The claims were later rejected by a judge, and Wood, 67, will die on Thursday. However, the state’s Supreme Criminal Court, the Texas Criminal Appeal Court, issued an execution after his latest appeal, which updated his claim for innocence.
The court suspended Wood’s execution to “until further orders.” It did not specify the decision in a brief three-page command.
If wood is executed this week, it will take him 32 years and two months Death prison cells in TexasTexas prisoners have been waiting for the longest time.
The 1987 murder case has not been resolved for several years until authorities say Wood boasted about him as the so-called “desert killer.” The victim’s body was found buried in shallow graves in the same desert area northeast of El Paso.
Authorities said Wood gave the victims a ride and then drove them into the desert where he sexually assaulted and killed them. The victims were Rosa Casio and Ivy Williams, both 23 years old. Karen Baker, 21; Angelica Fresto, 17; Desiree Wheatley, 15; and Dawn Smith, 14.
Two other girls and a young woman were also reportedly missing, but never found.
Wood is a repeatedly convicted sex offender, a former mechanic who has maintained his innocence for a long time.
“I didn’t do that,” Wood said in the latest document filed in his appeal.
March 4, Texas Parliament Commission Refused to ask for a lower penalty for death or give him a 90-day probation.
His lawyers have been trying for years to test the DNA hundreds of pieces of evidence after a bloodstain test on Smith’s clothes in 2011, and found that male DNA features were not wood. The Texas Attorney General’s Office has fought against new DNA testing, and various courts deny Wood’s request.
Gregory Wiercioch, one of Wood’s attorneys, said before the court’s ruling that when authorities identified Wood as the suspect, they focused on him rather than the evidence they had.
“We try to make it clear to the court that he is innocent and we will see if anyone listens,” Wilsioch said.
