Clemency Petition for Jeff Wood to Texas Governor and Board of Pardons and Paroles

BEFORE THE GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF TEXASANDTHE TEXAS BOARD OF PARDONS AND PAROLE

_____________________________________

In re:

Jeffery Lee Wood

,Petitioner.

_____________________________________

SUPERSEDING APPLICATION FOR COMMUTATION OF SENTENCE

,

REQUEST FOR HEARING PURSUANT TO

37 Texas Administrative Code § 143.43(f)(3) andAdministrative Procedures Act § 2001.001 et seq.,

REQUEST FOR COMPLIANCE WITH

Texas Open Meetings ActTexas Government Code § 551.001 et seq.,

AND

REQUEST FOR COMPLIANCE WITH

Texas ConstitutionArticle 4, § 1.Scott Sullivan Jared TylerTexas Bar No. 19483350 Texas Bar No. 24042073L

AW

O

FFICES OF

S

COTT

S

ULLIVAN

T

EXAS

D

EFENDER

S

ERVICE

310 S. St. Mary’s Street, Ste. 1222 412 Main St., Suite 1150San Antonio, Texas 78205 Houston, Texas 77002TEL: (210) 227-6000 TEL: (713) 222-7788FAX: (210) 271-0294 FAX: (713) 222-0260

Clemency

Petition

Jeffery

Wood

Page

1

“Proceedings must not only be fair, they must appear fair to all who observe them.”--Indiana v. Edwards

, 554 U.S. ___, 128 S.Ct. 2379 (Jun. 19, 2008) (quoting

Wheat v. United States

, 486 U. S. 153, 160 (1988)) (internal quotation marks omitted).Daniel Reneau, who coldly murdered Kriss Keeran in the early morning hours of January2, 1996, has already been executed by the State of Texas for his senseless act. Nevertheless, onAugust 21, 2008, the State seeks to execute Jeffery Wood for the same crime, even though theState does not contend th at Mr. Wood shot Keeran.

1

In fact, Mr. Wood was not even in thebuilding when Reneau shot and killed Keeran.Mr. Jeffery Lee Wood was convicted and sentenced to death as a party for the death of Kriss Keeran by the 216th Judicial District Court of Kerr County, Texas. Keeran’s unfortunatedeath was the result of a reckless scheme devised to steal the money that had accumulated in aKerrville convenience store over a holiday weekend. It was supposed to have been an inside job.Reneau and Mr. Wood visited the convenience store often. William (“Bill”) Bunker, theassistant manager of the store, was involved in discussions of the plan, in which Bunker wouldallow Reneau and Wood to take the store’s safe and security recording in exchange for some of the spoils. As it turned out, Keeran—whom, evidence suggested, also had been privy to priordiscussions about the scheme—was working on the morning after the holiday weekend when therobbery was to occur, but he did not cooperate. Reneau—the only person inside the store andwho carried a weapon—alone made the decision to take Keeran’s life. Mr. Wood was outsidethe store in his brother’s truck.Mr. Wood’s culpability for Kriss Keeran’s death lies somewhere between DanielReneau’s and Bill Bunker’s. Reneau has already been executed for deciding to take KrissKeeran’s life. Bill Bunker—despite being a co-conspirator without whose agreement andencouragement the crime never would have occurred—was never charged with any crime. Mr.Wood was not tried jointly with Daniel Reneau, but the two were nevertheless conflatedthroughout Mr. Wood’s trial. Indeed, in the punishment phase of Mr. Wood’s trial, the Statepresented evidence of a robbery that Reneau committed but did not present any evidence Mr.Wood had participated in it.Mr. Wood—for all the fault he does bear for Keeran’s untimely death—does not deserveto die. He has never taken a human life by his own hands. He sits on death row today becausehis emotional and psychological impairments—the same impairments that had been identified by

1

Mr. Wood’s first name has been spelled in various places as both “Jeffery” and “Jeffrey.” Thisis likely due to Mr. Wood’s educational deficits which frequently results in his transposing letters. Theundersigned will use “Jeffery,” because that is how the petitioner’s name was spelled in the indictment, asgiven by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice on its official website, and in his federal proceedings.

Clemency

Petition

Jeffery

Wood

Page

2

school psychologists since he was a child and for which a jury had found him incompetent tostand trial—caused him to make what his nominal trial attorneys called a “gesture of suicide”after he was found guilty of capital murder as a party. Mr. Wood’s attorneys made no cross-examination of any of the State’s witnesses. They presented no evidence or witnesses on Mr.Wood’s behalf. And they offered no reasons or arguments why the twelve people sitting on Mr.Wood’s jury should extend mercy to him and spare his life. Despite Mr. Wood’s gesture, theState nevertheless pressed forward.A death sentence is not just or appropriate merely because a jury answered special issuesin a manner that required a court to impose it. An undeniable and complete breakdown of theadversarial process occurred in Mr. Wood’s case in which all that was required for thegovernment to secure a death sentence was a defendant who, as a result of longstandingpsychological and emotional impairments, declined to defend himself. This state of affairsdemeans the lawyers and judge participating in the proceeding, demeans notions of criminal justice in Texas, and demeans the State—the representative of the Texan people—itself.Because human life has never been taken at Mr. Wood’s hands and because no defense todeathworthiness was presented by Mr. Wood’s nominal lawyers at trial, this Board should notrely on the verdict as a reliable determination that death was the appropriate punishment in thiscase. Although the lack of adversarial proceedings left Mr. Wood’s jury with no choice but toanswer the special issues in the manner it did, Mr. Wood’s clean prison record demonstrates thereality that he is not dangerous and is not a threat either to other inmates or to prison officers.Finally, Mr. Wood is potentially incompetent to be executed for the same reasons a jury initiallyfound him incompetent to stand trial. The undersigned believe that Mr. Wood lacks a rationalunderstanding of his death sentence.This Board has not only the power, but also the responsibility, to prevent the execution of Mr. Wood under the circumstances this case presents. For the reasons discussed below, Mr.Wood respectfully requests that this Board recommend to the Governor that Mr. Wood begranted a commutation of his death sentence to a sentence less than death.

I. Course of Proceedings

In 1996, and following an investigation by the Kerrville Police Department andDepartment of Public Safety, Mr. Wood was charged with capital murder for the January 2, 1996death of Kriss Keeran. Before his trial, Mr. Wood was found by a jury to be incompetent tostand trial. The evidence from the hearing reflected that Mr. Wood lacked sufficient ability tocommunicate with his lawyers about his case with a reasonable degree of rational understanding.Mr. Wood had been evaluated at his defense lawyer’s request by a clinicalneuropsychologist, Dr. Michael A. Roman, who administered a battery of psychological tests toMr. Wood. An intelligence test revealed an IQ approximately one standard deviation below the