A Texas appeals court granted a stay of execution for a man on death row for over three decades, initially slated for lethal injection this week for the murder of six young females. This marks the second execution in the U.S. adjourned on Tuesday, following a federal judge’s halt of Louisiana’s initial plans to use nitrogen gas for an execution next week.
In Texas, David Leonard Wood was reprieved once more. In 2009, nearly a day before his scheduled execution, proceedings were put on hold following claims that Wood was intellectually disabled, which would render him exempt from execution. Although those claims were dismissed by a judge, Wood, now 67, was rescheduled for execution on Thursday. However, after a renewed appeal citing his innocence, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the state’s top criminal court, granted him a stay. The ruling will pause Wood’s execution “until further order,” but the court did not provide further explanation in its succinct three-page order.
Had the execution proceeded as planned, Wood’s stay on Texas’ death row would total 32 years and two months, marking the longest duration an inmate waited before facing execution in the state. The 1987 murders confounded authorities for some years until Wood allegedly confessed to a fellow inmate about being the “Desert Killer.” The victims’ remains were uncovered in shallow graves in the desert near El Paso.
Authorities claimed that Wood offered rides to his victims before taking them into the desert, assaulting them sexually, and subsequently committing the murders. These victims included Rosa Casio and Ivy Williams, both aged 23; Karen Baker, aged 21; Angelica Frausto, aged 17; Desiree Wheatley, aged 15; and Dawn Smith, aged 14. Two additional young females and a woman were reported missing but were never located.
Despite being a repeat offender for sex crimes and employed as a mechanic, Wood has consistently professed his innocence. “I did not do it. I am innocent of this case. I’ll fight it,” he declared in recent appeal documents.
On March 4, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles rejected Wood’s request to either commute his death penalty or grant a 90-day reprieve. His legal team has repeatedly demanded DNA testing on numerous pieces of evidence, emphasizing the 2011 tests where a male DNA profile, not matching Wood’s, was discovered on the clothing of one of the victims, Dawn Smith. However, the Texas Attorney General’s Office has opposed further DNA testing, and various court requests by Wood have been dismissed.
Before the court’s recent decision, Gregory Wiercioch, one of Wood’s attorneys, remarked that law enforcement’s probe into Wood neglected pertinent evidence. “We’ve tried to make it clear to the courts that he’s innocent, and we’ll see if anyone listens,” Wiercioch stated.
