link Death date nears for accomplice in Hill Country murder By MICHAEL GRACZYK Associated Press Aug. 19, 2008, 9:32AM BuzzHUNTSVILLE — His lawyers don't dispute that convicted killer Jeffery Wood deserves punishment for his involvement in a robbery more than a dozen years ago, when a clerk at a Texas Hill Country gas station convenience store was gunned down. But Wood's attorneys and supporters argue that 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 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 turns 35 today, is to be executed 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. He 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 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. "For all the fault he does bear for Keeran's untimely death, (Wood) does not deserve to die," they said in a petition to the board, which was expected to make a recommendation today to Gov. Rick Perry. "He has never taken a human life by his own hands." Wood's case was being compared to that of another convicted Texas killer, Kenneth Foster, whose death sentence was commuted a year ago by Perry. Foster also was condemned under the law of parties, although Perry's explanation for commuting Foster's sentence to life in prison was that Foster and his co-defendant were tried together on capital murder charges for a slaying in San Antonio. In Wood's case, he and Reneau — executed in 2002 — were tried separately. "We certainly would eyeball Foster as an example why he should not be executed," Sullivan said. "If it was good enough for Foster, it's certainly good enough for us." Since Texas resumed carrying out executions in 1982, Foster's commutation recommendation from the Board of Pardons and Paroles, just hours before he was scheduled to die, marked only the second time the panel voted to stop an execution as the punishment loomed. In the first case, in 2004, Perry rejected the board's recommendation and the prisoner was executed. Prosecutors said Reneau hatched the plan that also involved Wood, his roommate, and culminated with the death of Keeran, 31, who knew both men. Wood's involvement was the result of what his lawyers argued was a "longstanding mental illness that allowed him to be easily manipulated" by Reneau, who they called "the principal actor." "Wood's emotional and psychological impairments, including his intellectual limitations, diminished Wood's capacity to anticipate what Daniel Reneau would do inside the convenience store," his lawyers said. Lucy Wilke, the Kerr County assistant district attorney who prosecuted Wood, and Kerr County District Attorney Bruce Curry, both were in a grand jury Monday and unavailable, Curry's office said. After his 1998 trial, Wilke described Wood as "not a dummy" and called the slaying "cold-blooded, premeditated." Wood initially was found by a jury to be mentally incompetent to stand trial. After a brief stint at a state hospital, a second jury found him competent. After he was found guilty, he tried to fire his lawyers before the penalty phase. The trial judge denied the request but Wood's lawyers followed their client's wishes and called no witnesses on his behalf and declined to cross-examine prosecution witnesses. "So we sat there and twiddled our thumbs," one of his trial lawyers, Scott Monroe, recalled last week. "It's pretty frustrating." Evidence showed Reneau entered the store before dawn on Jan. 2, 1996, and fatally shot Keeran once in the face with a .22-caliber pistol. He and Wood then robbed the store of more than $11,000 in cash and checks. Both were arrested within 24 hours. According to court records, Wood was waiting outside the store and came in after Keeran was shot, then both fled with the store safe, a cash box and a video recorder containing a security tape showing the robbery and slaying. Evidence showed the pair had planned the robbery for a couple of weeks and unsuccessfully tried recruiting Keeran and another employee to stage a phony robbery. Reneau and Wood drove to Wood's parents' home in Devine, about 65 miles to the south, where they tried to open the safe with a sledge hammer and a blow torch. When Wood's 16-year-old brother, Jonathan, asked them how they got the safe, Wood told him about the holdup and shooting. And when the brother expressed skepticism, Wood showed him the tape. Wood's brother testified he then was ordered to destroy the tape with the blow torch. Wood led police to the murder weapon, which Reneau said had been taken by Wood in an earlier burglary.
I don't have much problem with this at all. My biggest complaint about the death penalty is the cost.
This kind of thing makes me ill. I'm not a big fan of the death penalty to begin with but I do not always hate it. This, on the other hand, is terrible.
I'd prefer him not be put to death, but I'm not going to cry for him when he was an active participant in the plot, knew what was happening, etc. He may not have pulled the trigger, but he knew what his buddy was doing and was trying to benefit from it.
Felony murder is a capital crime in Texas. This guy was directly involved in the felony, and a jury found that the taking of the life was a foreseeable consequence of the felony. What's the problem here? I'm not arguing that the law is right, but the law was followed to the tee in this case.
Yup, that's what I learned in my crim law class. This is felony murder, and the person is guilty under the theory of complicity. However, the judge and jury had a choice on the punishment, and I wonder if the facts of the case were so bad that an accomplice deserves a death sentence.
