A
Texas court offered an unexpected stay Friday of the execution of a man
convicted of a murder for which he was not even present.
Jeffery
Wood, who had been scheduled to be executed next Wednesday, was sitting in a
pickup truck outside a gas station in January 1996 while his friend robbed the
convenience store and shot the clerk inside.
Wood,
who turned 43 on Friday, was sentenced to death under a state law that says
anyone involved in a criminal plot resulting in death is equally responsible
regardless of actual involvement or intent.
His
lawyers argued that Wood's due process had been violated by false testimony and
scientific evidence.
The
Texas Court of Criminal Appeals agreed, basing the stay on the fact that an
expert psychiatrist who provided his opinion of Wood's mental capacity was
later discredited.
"The
court did the right thing by staying Mr Wood's execution," his attorney
Jared Tyler said in a statement.
Wood,
who is said to have the IQ of a child, was unaware that his friend, Daniel
Reneau -- whom he had met just two months earlier -- would carry a firearm into
the convenience store, his supporters say.
Wood
sat in the pickup truck outside the gas station in the city of Kerrville while
Reneau went inside to rob a safe.
Although Reneau had anticipated an unarmed
robbery, the plan went awry when he shot the store employee in the head after
he refused to comply.
Hearing the gun go off, Wood rushed into the
store to find a blood-soaked scene. He helped Reneau remove a video
surveillance recorder before the two men fled, taking the safe and a cash box.
They were arrested the following day, quickly
identified by witnesses.
"Justice is not served by executing Mr
Wood, who was outside the building when it happened and who had no criminal
history," Tyler said.
Wood's supporters waged an all-out campaign to
stay the execution in recent days and several dozen evangelical leaders also
wrote to Texas Governor Greg Abbott demanding clemency.
"I have never seen an execution in the
United States with this low of a level of culpability as Mr Wood has," his
defense attorney Kate Black told AFP.
