Jeffrey Wood has become a poster boy … of a sort.
No, he won’t be showing up on a beefcake calendar. His name, though, could become part of an effort to provide significant improvements to Texas’s laws governing capital punishment.
This week, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals halted Wood’s scheduled execution for a crime he didn’t commit. It sent the case back to a lower court to determine whether he was tried properly.
Beyond that, Wood’s case has brought to light a dubious provision in a state law that allows juries to convict someone of a capital crime — even if they don’t commit the actual act.
In 1996, Wood was sitting in a truck in Kerrville while his friend, Philip Reneau, was inside a convenience store committing a robbery. Reneau demanded the store clerk turn over the safe; when the clerk refused, Reneau shot him to death.
Meanwhile, Wood’s presence in the truck made him — under state law — culpable for the capital crime. They call it the “law of parties,” and it creates a form of criminal equality among those who commit these dastardly crimes.
The state executed Reneau in 2002. Wood’s turn was coming up. State Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Plano — a staunch supporter of capital punishment — has asked Gov. Greg Abbott and the Texas Pardons and Parole Board to commute Wood’s sentence. He doesn’t think the death penalty in this case is right and just.
There ought to be a more permanent and comprehensive solution to this matter. The Texas Legislature ought to rewrite the law to separate the person who commits the crime from an individual who accompanies the individual.
The state argued at trial that Wood knew Reneau would kill the individual if he didn’t obtain the money. That knowledge made him equally responsible for the capital crime, prosecutors said.
In my quest for a perfect world, I would prefer that Texas not even have a death penalty statute. I know, though, that a majority of Texans support capital punishment. Indeed, the state has become the all-time champeen among all the states in executing those convicted of capital crimes.
If we’re going to continue killing criminals, though, the very least we can do is focus more sharply on those who actually commit the crimes.
Jeffrey Wood did not kill that store clerk. Philip Reneau did. Reneau paid the price as authorized under Texas law. Wood does not deserve to pay the same price.
Gov. Abbott should commute Wood’s sentence and spare his life.
Meanwhile, the governor — who’s also a former trial judge — ought to invite the Legislature to improve what looks to me to be a serious flaw in the state’s criminal penal code.
Get rid of the law of parties.
The law of parties in Texas only makes common sense to those that are in favor of the death penalty, however its a law that entrapped Jeff Wood and through poor legal representation. Wood is a case that a Texas judge had to ignore the facts of the case to apply a criminal law that should not have legally been applied. I believe that Wood is a case that should create legislative inquiry as to how it could have applied based off of the evidence that is known Wood entire conviction should be completely reversed and he should be charged with the appropriate crime which is not Murder, but is Robbery. Texas has no integrity of justice toward most poor defendants as can be established through the cases of Francis Newton, Camoron Todd Willingham, Hank Skinner, Robert Will, and many others. Texas needs criminal justice reform and this is a issue that needs to be explored through community activists, Black Lives Matter, and even through news media. Jeff is a human being and Texas almost executed a man that is fundamentally void of the charge. The Law of Parties do not fit this case.
Agreed. He didn’t do the crime. Thanks for your comment .. and thanks for reading the blog.