Saving Jeff Wood
By Matt Tedrow
Anti-death-penalty activists and the friends, family and supporters
of Jeff Wood scored a tremendous victory yesterday when a federal
judge granted him a stay of execution. Though Wood's struggle against
the state is far from over, gross injustice was not allowed to carry
the day.
Wood was condemned to death in 1996 for the murder of Kris Keeran,
even though there is a consensus that Wood did not murder, intend to
murder or know that a murder was going to take place. He was
sentenced to death under the Law of Parties, section 7.02 of the
Texas Penal Code, which holds co-defendants criminally responsible
for a crime if they act as conspirators. Put another way, the Law of
Parties allows for guilt by association. In Wood's case, he was
forced to drive a getaway vehicle after Keeran's actual killer,
Daniel Reneau, shot Keeran during a convenience store robbery in
1996. Wood was not even in the building when the killing occurred.
Bill Bunker, the store's assistant manager who helped plot and even
encouraged the robbery, was never charged with any crime. Reneau was
executed in 2002.
Yesterday, Jeff's family and friends, activists and supporters from
around the world clogged Gov. Rick Perry's inboxes and phone lines
with demands that Wood be spared. Even Kris Keeran's father asked
that Wood's sentence be commuted. Last summer, Perry set a precedent
for Wood's case when he commuted the sentence of Kenneth Foster, who
received the death penalty under similar circumstances.
But even though Wood is safe (for now, at least), his example raises
hard questions about the Law of Parties and about capital punishment
itself. The statute is clearly being used in an unjust and abusive
manner when bit players are forced to pay the ultimate price.
It is time to demand that our state's legislators correct this
monstrous injustice. The examples of Kenneth Foster and Jeff Wood are
not flukes in an otherwise fair system. Foster and Wood represent the
sad tale of most death row inmates: indigence and poverty, inadequate
representation, withheld testimony, forced confessions and so on.
Even if capital punishment were fair, its overall application reeks
of bias and flaws - especially in Texas, which leads the nation in
executions.
The death penalty is not a deterrent to violent crime, and study
after study has shown that it actually costs taxpayers more money
than life in prison without possibility of parole, after court fees
and prison time are factored in.
Currently, an anti-death-penalty sentiment is gripping the nation,
mainly due to the fact that more and more Americans realize that
there are serious problems when it comes to meting out the ultimate
punishment. However, the problem ultimately rests on the fact that
states have been given the right to kill people, not in any
particular flaws with the death penalty's application.
The use of violence, force or coercion by the state demands a high
burden of proof. In Wood's case, it falls on the state to show that
the death penalty can be justified only in terms of what is necessary
to guarantee the population's safety or survival. The right to kill
people, in other words, is such a powerful concession to the state
that it cannot be justified intrinsically. As it happens, there are
viable alternatives to the death penalty that also prevent murderers
from being released into the general population: namely, life in
prison without parole. There is no reason to execute people in the
name of protecting others.
It is time that we enter the 21st century - or even the 20th century
- by abolishing capital punishment now and forever. We've
successfully delayed the state-sponsored murder of Jeff Wood. But we
still have a long way to go in this state, and our work is certainly
cut out for us.
Visit savejeffwood. com for more information about Jeff Wood's case.
Tedrow is a journalism graduate student and a board member of
Campaign to End the Death Penalty.
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