Stop the Unjust Execution of Jeffery Wood!

We, the undersigned, urge the state of Texas to immediately halt the upcoming execution of Jeffery Wood, inmate no. #999256, for a murder he did not commit, and to commute his death sentence until an impartial trial can take place.

Our hearts are with the family of Kriss Keeran, who was murdered by Daniel Reneau in the convenience store where he worked. But during the crime, Jeff Wood did not and could not have known that Reneau would murder Keeran. Wood was not even inside the store at the time of the murder, and was outside sitting unarmed in a vehicle. Wood’s actions before the murder, namely sitting in a car unarmed and unaware that another person was going to commit a robbery, does not constitute reckless indifference to human life, and executing him is not "justice."

Furthermore, Mr. Wood has a history of emotional and intellectual impairments, and an IQ consistently assessed at about 80. He has been described as having the mind of a child, and his trial was initially postponed because a jury deemed him incompetent. Not only is it a violation of the United States Constitution to execute a man who lacks the mental capacity to understand the death penalty, but in the Enmund v. Florida case of 1982, the Supreme Court also found it was unconstitutional to execute the driver of a get-away car in an armed robbery. The court's rationale was that the Eighth amendment forbids imposing capital punishment on someone "who aids and abets a felony in the course of which a murder is committed by others but who does not himself kill, attempt to kill, or intend that a killing take place or that lethal force will be employed". However, this argument has never been made at any of Woods' trials, a severe oversight. We strongly believe that a court of law must determine whether or not Woods' execution is constitutional before it takes place.

Finally, we also express serious concerns about the fairness of the 1998 trial which sentenced Mr. Woods with the death penalty. At sentencing, the defense lawyers made no arguments, put on no witnesses, and presented no evidence. At the request of Mr. Wood, who was suffering from severe delusions, they "sat mute" throughout. The prosecution presented false or misleading testimony from now-discredited psychiatrist Dr. James Grigson, who regularly testified at Texas capital sentencings that the defendant would commit future acts of violence, regardless of evidence to the contrary. By Wood's trial in 1998, Grigson had been expelled from the American Psychiatric Association for his inaccurate testimony, but the prosecution presented Grigson's claims as fact without informing the jury of his expulsion. Since the trial, three former jurors have asserted their support for commuting Woods' sentence, with one noting that "during the deliberations, the law was presented to the jury in a way which did not allow us to vote for a life sentence”. Executing a man who has been convicted under such dubious conditions is incredibly unjust, and a blight on both the state of Texas and the United States of America.

As a representative of the State of Texas, as a Christian, and as a human being, it is your duty to commute the execution of Jeffery Wood until a fair, impartial trial can take place. To do nothing less is a shameful violation of both human rights and everything America stands for.

Under current circumstances, there is nothing to suggest that Mr. Wood deserves death. But once he is executed, it will be too late to rectify any mistakes. We urge you to prevent a tragic injustice by stopping the execution of Jeffery Wood immediately.