Execution halted for Texas accomplice who wasn't triggerman
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}CORRECTS SPELLING OF FIRST NAME TO JEFFERY FROM JEFFREY - This undated photo provided by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice shows death row inmate Jeffery Wood. A Republican lawmaker in Texas says a bipartisan group of legislators will take the highly unusual step of urging the state to halt the execution of Wood, who didn't pull the trigger during a fatal 1996 robbery. Wood is scheduled to die by lethal injection Wednesday. He was convicted under a Texas law that makes a participant in a capital murder crime equally culpable, even though it was Wood's friend who shot a store clerk. (Texas Department of Criminal Justice via AP) (The Associated Press)
A court has halted the execution of a Texas man who was sentenced to death for a fatal 1996 robbery in which he didn't pull the trigger.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Friday put Jeffery Wood's execution on hold. The 43-year-old Wood was scheduled to die Wednesday.
Wood and his friend Daniel Reneau were convicted in the shooting death of a store clerk. Wood waited in a car while Reneau shot the clerk.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The case has drawn highly unusual opposition from Republican lawmakers. It also has captured attention across the U.S. over Wood's culpability, his mental competence and criticism surrounding his original trial.
The appeals court ordered a lower court to review defense claims that the sentence was based on false testimony and false scientific evidence.