Court stays execution of Texas man days before he was set to die by lethal injection
A Texas appeals court on Tuesday halted the execution of a man who has spent more than 30 years on death row and had been set to die by lethal injection this week.
AUSTIN, Texas — A Texas appeals court on Tuesday halted the execution of a man who has spent more than 30 years on death row and had been set to die by lethal injection this week over the killings of six girls and young women found buried in the desert near El Paso.
It was the second scheduled execution in the U.S. halted on Tuesday after a federal judge stopped Louisiana’s first death row execution using nitrogen gas, which was to take place next week.
In Texas, the order was another reprieve for David Leonard Wood, who in 2009 was about 24 hours away from execution when it was halted over claims he is intellectually disabled and thus ineligible for execution.
David Leonard Wood in 2009. Mike Graczyk / AP fileThose claims were later rejected by a judge and Wood, 67, had been set to die Thursday. But the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the state’s highest criminal court, issued a stay of execution after his latest appeal, which renewed his claims of innocence.
The court put Wood’s execution on pause “until further order.” It did not elaborate on the decision in a brief three-page order.
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