David Wood, a 67-year-old man on death row in Texas for the murder of six girls and young women in 1987, has been granted a stay of execution just two days before he was scheduled to be killed by lethal injection. The Texas court of criminal appeals issued a ruling pausing the execution after Wood’s lawyers presented new evidence supporting his innocence claims and requested DNA testing that could exonerate him.
Wood, who has maintained his innocence for decades, was convicted based on circumstantial evidence and testimony from jailhouse informants who have since been discredited. A man named George Hall came forward last year to reveal that detectives pressured him and two other informants to lie about Wood confessing to the murders, casting serious doubts on their testimonies.
Wood’s case has been mired in controversy, with multiple pieces of evidence remaining untested and allegations of prosecutorial misconduct. His lawyers have been fighting for more DNA tests for over a decade but have been consistently denied by judges.
Despite the ongoing legal battle, victims’ families, including the mother of one of the teenage victims, remain convinced of Wood’s guilt. The case has captivated the public’s attention, highlighting the flaws in the criminal justice system and the need for thorough investigation and evidence testing before imposing the ultimate punishment of execution. As Wood’s fate hangs in the balance, the debate surrounding capital punishment and wrongful convictions continues to intensify across the country.
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