BEFORE THE GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF TEXAS AND THE TEXAS BOARD OF PARDONS AND PAROLE
_____________________________________ In re:
Jeffery Lee Wood
, Petitioner. _____________________________________
APPLICATION FOR COMMUTATION OF SENTENCE TO LIFE AND
REQUEST FOR HEARING
Pursuant to 37 Tex. Admin. Code § 143.57(g)(3)
Mr. Wood is Scheduled for Execution on August 24, 2016
J. Scott Sullivan Jared Tyler Texas Bar No. 19483350 Texas Bar No. 24042073 L
AW
O
FFICES OF
J.
S
COTT
S
ULLIVAN
T
YLER
L
AW
F
IRM
,
PLLC 22211 IH 10 W., Ste. 1206 P.O. Box 764 San Antonio, Texas 78257 Houston, Texas 77001 TEL: (210) 227-6000 TEL: (832) 606-2302 ssullivan18@satx.rr.com jptyler@tylerlawfirm.org
Counsel for Jeffery Lee Wood
1 To the Board of Pardons and Paroles: This Board has recommended commutations for two persons who did not take human life themselves. In 2007, the Board recommended that the Governor grant a commutation of sentence from death to life to Kenneth Foster. Foster had been tried under Texas’s “law of parties.”
1
The State conceded he was not the triggerperson. The Board voted 6-1 in favor of recommending to the Governor that he grant a commu-tation of sentence. In 2009, the Board again recommended a commutation of sen-tence for Robert Thompson. Like Foster, there was no dispute that Thompson had not by his own actions taken a life. We request, on behalf of Mr. Wood, that the Board recommend commutation for a third. Jeffery Wood has never killed anybody, nor did he intend for anybody to be killed. His emotional and intellectual impairments rendered him vulnerable to ma-nipulation and domination by others, in this case his codefendant Daniel Reneau, who was executed in 2002. The basic facts of the case are not in dispute. Wood was charged with capital murder for the January 2, 1996, death of Kriss Keeran in the 216th District Court of Kerr County, Texas.
2
Daniel Reneau shot Keeran in order to steal a safe at a Texaco convenience store at which Keeran worked. Wood, unaware that Reneau would harm anybody, sat in a truck parked outside the store. At least three people who sat on Wood’s jury now believe his sentence should be commuted to life.
Jeffery Lee Wood
Wood has borderline intellectual functioning, a severe disability.
3
He is de-scribed by his step-mother as an “eight-year-old in a man’s body.”
4
As early as elemen-
1
See Texas Penal Code § 7.02.
2
Venue was transferred several times. Trial on the merits and sentencing occurred in Bandera County.
3
Wood’s IQ has repeatedly and consistently been tested at approximately 80, which is more than one full standard deviation below normal. There are “marked similarities be-tween the situation of people with intellectual disabilities and those with borderline intel-lectual functioning.” Eric Emerson, et. al.,
The Mental Health of Young Children With Intel-lectual Disabilities or Borderline Intellectual Functioning
, 45 S
OC
.
P
SYCHIAT
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PIDEMIOLO-GY
579 (2010). These similarities include significantly higher rates of mental health needs, similar patterns of service response to mental health disorders, and increased risk of expo-sure to socioeconomic disadvantage. Another study found that “[b]oys with externalizing symptoms and a subaverage IQ displayed an impulsive-response style with deficiencies in their information-processing capacity. The authors concluded that children with problems of conduct and BIF [borderline intellectual functioning] belong to one of the most vulnera-ble groups of youth in Western society.” Elisabeth Fernell and Ulla Ek,
Borderline Intellec-tual Functioning in Children and Adolescents – Insufficiently Recognized Difficulties
, 99 Acta Paediatrica 748 (2010).
2 tary school, Wood was identified by the East Central Independent School District in San Antonio as being in need of additional services. He was tested and determined to be hyperactive. In sixth grade, at the age of twelve and after a change in schools, Wood was again immediately identified as requiring additional attention. Assessed by a psychologist, he was described as “hyperactive,” “highly impulsive,” and having a “short attention span.” The psychologist reported, Hygiene and grooming are also often poor. During an observation, Jeff was very fidgety. He was seldom on task but did volunteer to answer questions and offered to loan another student a pencil. He seemed to want attention from his math teacher, asking her for help on the test-ing activity. The observer’s opinion was that Jeff seemed to want to have his teacher all to himself.
5
The psychologist administered several tests, and observed that Wood presented a “challenging” case because his “behavior and attitudes fluctuated rapidly.”
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He “con-stantly subvocalized self-derogatory statements and complaints usually with great expression and intensity.”
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Psychomotor testing reflected a visual-motor score “significantly below his chronological age range,” which impacted Wood’s spelling and written expression.
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Personality assessment reflected that Wood “demonstrates the impulsivity and dis-organization often noted in youngsters with some form of a visual-motor deficit.”
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Additionally, excessive anxiety and fear create tension, and lead to faulty reasoning and reality testing. The result is a youngster who ex-ercises exceptionally poor judgement which, along with achievement failures, further results in negative consequences. This, in turn, fosters self-doubt and recrimination. Jeff is not able currently to pull himself out of this dilemma by using productive problem solving strategies since self-introspection is so painful, and an objective wholistic [sic] picture of reality is so difficult for him to attain. His subjective percep-tions seem to be fragmented and filled with morbid, threatening ele-ments. He seems to feel a strong drive to retreat from emotional stimu-li and emotionally laden thoughts; if unable to do so, perceptions of re-ality become even more distorted. ...
4
App. 1 (Affidavit of Mitzie Wood, Mar. 24, 2000).
5
App. 2 at 2 (Comprehensive Psychological Evaluation, Apr. 29, 1987).
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Id
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Id
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Id
. at 3.
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Id. at 5.
