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Tx CCA Orders Stay and Hearing

By Steve Hall

"Execution stayed: David Leonard Wood's mental ability at issue," the El Paso Times report by Gustavo Reveles Acosta and Diana Washington Valdez.The execution of convicted serial killer David Leonard Wood was halted by a Texas court on Wednesday, 24 hours before the state was scheduled to give him a lethal injection.The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals issued a stay of execution order and requested that hearings be set to determine whether Wood, 52, is mentally retarded, said Sian Schilhab, the general counsel for the court. A 2002 U.S. Supreme Court ruling prohibits the execution of mentally retarded people because it deems such executions cruel and unusual punishment.An appeal filed Tuesday argued that Wood suffers from mental retardation and should not be executed...continue to full post

Full post as published by StandDown Texas Project on August 20, 2009 (boomark / email).