Capital Punishment

4WardEver UK

British woman on death row who claims innocence will not get new trial

Linda Carty
Linda Carty

source: METRO
published: 3 September 2016

A British woman sentenced to death in 2002 will not get a retrial, a Texas judge has ruled.

Linda Carty was convicted of the kidnapping and murder of her neighbour, Joana Rodriguez, more than a decade ago, but maintains her innocence.

Carty, who was a former informant for the Drug Enforcement Agency, was found to have orchestrated the kidnapping with three men, and was convicted under the Texas ‘law of parties’, a rule which states that a person is criminally liable if they ‘solicit, encourage, direct, aid, or attempt to aid the other person to commit the offence.’

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4WardEver UK

Execution halted for Jeff Wood, who never killed anyone

Jeff Wood
Jeff Wood

source: Texas Tribune
published: 19 August 2016

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has halted the execution of Jeff Wood — a man who never killed anyone — six days before he was set to die by lethal injection. The order was issued on his 43rd birthday.

The court issued a brief, two-page order Friday afternoon sending the case back to the original trial court so it can examine Wood’s claim that a jury was improperly persuaded to sentence him to death by testimony from a highly criticized psychiatrist nicknamed “Dr. Death.” The order creates the possibility that Wood’s death sentence could be thrown out, though not his conviction.

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4WardEver UK

In Texas death row case, the punishment does not fit the crime

Jeff Wood
Jeff Wood

source: My Statesman
published: 18 July 2016

Jeff Wood has an appointment he hopes to miss. On Aug. 24, 2016, at about 6 p.m., the Texas Department of Criminal Justice plans to inject a lethal dose of pentobarbital into Jeff’s veins to stop his heart as punishment for the 1996 murder of Kris Keeran.

What makes this execution controversial is that everyone, including law enforcement and the prosecution, agrees that Wood, the driver of the getaway car, did not kill Kris Keeran inside a Kerrville convenient store on the morning of January 2, 1996.

In fact, Daniel Reneau, the actual and sole killer of Keeran, was executed for his crime on June 13, 2002.

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