Courtroom stays execution of Texas man days earlier than he was set to die by deadly injection
AUSTIN, Texas — A Texas appeals court docket on Tuesday halted the execution of a person who has spent greater than 30 years on loss of life row and had been set to die by deadly injection this week over the killings of six ladies and younger girls discovered buried within the desert close to El Paso.
It was the second scheduled execution within the U.S. halted on Tuesday after a federal decide stopped Louisiana’s first loss of life row execution utilizing nitrogen gasoline, which was to happen subsequent week.
In Texas, the order was one other reprieve for David Leonard Wooden, who in 2009 was about 24 hours away from execution when it was halted over claims he’s intellectually disabled and thus ineligible for execution.
These claims have been later rejected by a decide and Wooden, 67, had been set to die Thursday. However the Texas Courtroom of Prison Appeals, the state’s highest felony court docket, issued a keep of execution after his newest enchantment, which renewed his claims of innocence.
The court docket put Wooden’s execution on pause “till additional order.” It didn’t elaborate on the choice in a quick three-page order.
Had Wooden been executed this week, he would have spent 32 years and two months on Texas’ loss of life row, the longest time a Texas inmate has waited earlier than being put to loss of life.
The 1987 murders remained unsolved for a number of years till authorities say Wooden bragged to a cellmate that he was the so-called “Desert Killer.” The victims’ our bodies have been discovered buried in shallow graves in the identical desert space northeast of El Paso.
Authorities stated Wooden gave rides to the victims after which drove them into the desert, the place he sexually assaulted and killed them. The victims have been Rosa Casio and Ivy Williams, each 23; Karen Baker, 21; Angelica Frausto, 17; Desiree Wheatley, 15; and Daybreak Smith, 14.
Two different ladies and a younger lady have been additionally reported lacking however have been by no means discovered.
Wooden, a repeat convicted intercourse offender who had labored as a mechanic, has lengthy maintained his innocence.
“I didn’t do it. I’m harmless of this case. I’ll struggle it,” Wooden stated in latest paperwork filed in his appeals.
On March 4, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles declined a request to commute his loss of life sentence to a lesser penalty or grant him a 90-day reprieve.
His legal professionals have for years sought to have a whole bunch of items of proof examined for DNA after testing in 2011 of bloodstains on the clothes Smith wore discovered a male DNA profile that was not Wooden. The Texas Lawyer Normal’s Workplace has fought in opposition to new DNA assessments and varied courts have denied Wooden’s request for it.
Previous to the court docket’s resolution Tuesday, Gregory Wiercioch, one in all Wooden’s attorneys, stated that when authorities recognized Wooden as a suspect, they targeted on him and never on the proof they’d.
“We’ve tried to make it clear to the courts that he’s harmless, and we’ll see if anybody listens,” Wiercioch stated.
