Stop the Execution of David Wood in Texas

Governor Greg Abbott & Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles

David Wood was convicted in Texas for the alleged 1987 capital murder of Ivy Susanna Williams. Although David was convicted of only her murder, he was also indicted in the murders of five other women and girls, aged between 14 and 24. His most recent execution date of 13, 2025 was stayed by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals pending further orders. David Wood has always maintained his innocence.

Action Steps

  • Please continue to sign & share this petition.
  • Sample social media post: Execution Stayed! Despite Prosecutorial deception, false testimony, suppressed evidence, ineffective representation & paid #JailhouseSnitch testimony, #DavidWood remains on death row in #Texas Sign/share petition: bit.ly/DavidWoodTX #StopExecutions
  • Graphics for sharing are here.

News items from the weeks leading up to David Wood's most recent execution date:

THIS IS AN ACTUAL INNOCENCE CASE

CASE DOCUMENTS

Claims Presented in Subsequent Writ of Habeas Corpus Filed Feb, 21, 2025

  1. DAVID WOOD IS ACTUALLY INNOCENT
  2. THE STATE OBTAINED DAVID WOOD’S CONVICTION BY PRESENTING FALSE TESTIMONY IN VIOLATION OF DUE PROCESS
  3. THE STATE SUPPRESSED EVIDENCE IN VIOLATION OF BRADY
  4. THE STATE DESTROYED EVIDENCE IN VIOLATION OF THE DUE PROCESS CLAUSE OF THE FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT
  5. TRIAL COUNSEL RENDERED INEFFECTIVE ASSISTANCE OF COUNSEL AT THE GUILT PHASE IN VIOLATION OF THE SIXTH AMENDMENT RIGHT TO COUNSEL
  6. DEFENSE COUNSEL, NORBERT GARNEY, REPRESENTED DAVID WOOD DESPITE AN ACTUAL CONFLICT OF INTEREST IN VIOLATION OF THE SIXTH AMENDMENT RIGHT TO COUNSEL
  7. DAVID WOOD’S RIGHT TO A UNANIMOUS JURY VERDICT WAS VIOLATED
  8. DAVID WOOD’S SIXTH AMENDMENT RIGHT TO CONFRONTATION WAS VIOLATED

In one of the most sensational murder cases in Texas, Applicant David Wood, the “Desert Serial Killer,” seeks to overturn his conviction and sentence of death because he is actually innocent. At first glance, the endeavor seems quixotic. But David Wood’s case illustrates the danger created by the combustible mix of a high-profile crime and intense public pressure to solve it. These factors led to a rush to judgment that prematurely shifted an evidence-based investigation into a suspect-based investigation. Tunnel vision and confirmation bias compounded the error.

Prosecutorial deception, false testimony, suppressed evidence, ineffective representation, and jailhouse snitch testimonythe canary in the coalmine of wrongful convictionsthwarted justice in his case.

Twenty years after David Wood’s trial, forensic testing definitively excluded him as the contributor of male DNA in a bloodstain on the clothing of a female victim. Since that exculpatory test in 2011, the Attorney General of the State of Texasacting as the district attorney pro temhas steadfastly and inexplicably refused to agree to additional DNA testing, including testing the biological samples that the police collected from an alternative suspect. David Wood has endured a nearly forty-year odyssey through the criminal legal system. He stands on the edge of the abyss. He is innocent.

David Wood’s actual innocence claim is founded on newly discovered evidence that is “rationally irreconcilable with the original inculpatory evidence.”  No rational juror could have found David Wood guilty in light of this new evidence, including that:

  • DNA testing has conclusively excluded David Wood as the contributor of male DNA found on a bloodstain on the yellow sunsuit of the victim Dawn Smith.
  • Police detectives handed their investigative files to the jail￾house snitches, Randy Wells and James Carl Sweeney, to help them fabricate their testimony that David Wood con￾fessed to being the Desert Killer. George M. Hall, whom the State hoped to use as a third jailhouse snitch, witnessed fused to participate in their scheme.
  • Wells literally “got away with murder” when a capital murder charge against him was dismissed in exchange for his testimony against David Wood. Wells was later indicted for aggravated perjury for testifying falsely against his co-defendants in their murder trials.
  • Sweeney received $13,000 for his testimony against David Wood.
  • David Wood was under police surveillance on the days that two of the victims disappeared. The police did not see him with either of the victims.
  • The pickup truck that the jailhouse informants testified David Wood always used in carrying out the murders was seriously damaged in a traffic accident in late July 1987. It was taken to an auto salvage yard where it remained for the entire month of August, when three of the victims went missing.
  • The police pressured Judith Brown Kelling, a heroin addict and prostitute, to falsely accuse David Wood of sexual assault so they could take him “off the streets” while they continued to build their case against him as the Desert Killer. Kelling admitted that a different man assaulted her. But Kelling was allowed to testify at the capital murder trial about this extraneous offense so that the State would be able to prove David Wood’s identity as the Desert Killer and his modus operandi.
  • The State’s scientific expert gave misleading testimony that fibers found in a vacuum cleaner bag associated with David Wood “matched” fibers collected from one of the crime scenes.
  • Three witnesses saw the victim Ivy Williams after the date the State alleged she was last seen, leaving a bar with David Wood.
  • An alternative suspect gave five conflicting statements to the police and failed a polygraph examination. The police collected biological samples from him, but those samples have never been tested to determine if he contributed the male DNA found on Dawn Smith’s yellow sunsuit.

The El Paso Police Department’s premature and myopic focus on David Wood set in motion an investigation plagued by tunnel vision, where the police continually assumed the worst about David Wood without adequately exploring—or even considering—alternatives. Instead, the police dismissed or explained away or suppressed evidence that undermined their presumption. Without DNA evidence or eyewitness testimony or a confession, the State admitted that it had “purely a circumstantial-evidence case.”

Texas' aggressive execution schedule marks it as an outlier in its use of the death penalty while the majority of other states are on a downward trend of executions. In the last few years, Texas has been one of only a handful of states that have carried out death sentences - and it continues to do so targeting the poor, the mentally ill and people of color.

Please sign the petition asking Governor Abbott and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to do everything within their power to stop this execution, including issuing a stay, and seeking a path to clemency in the case.

Additionally, you may reach out now to the Board at bpp-pio@tdcj.texas.gov and the Governor at https://gov.texas.gov/contact/and (512) 463-1782. You can simply leave a voice message, or choose to speak to a representative if you prefer.

Please note: In Texas, the Governor does have limited power when it comes to the death penalty. But the story we are told that "it's out of the governor's hands," is only true if we allow it to be. Yes, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles must recommend clemency in that state in order for the Governor to grant clemency (mercy) by commuting a death sentence. But the fact is that the governor appoints the members of the Board of Pardons and Paroles. He can choose to appoint members who will take valid claims and concerns more seriously, instead of acting like rubber-stamping gate-keepers. He can still use his position of power and influence to enact justice in the State of Texas

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Death Penalty Action

To: Governor Greg Abbott & Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles
From: [Your Name]

We are writing to ask that you to stop the execution of David Wood on March 13, 2025, who was convicted in Texas of the 1987 capital murders of Desiree Wheatley, Rosa Maria Casio, Ivy Susanna Williams, Karen Baker, Angelica Frausto, and Dawn Marie Smith.

David Wood’s actual innocence claim is founded on newly discovered evidence that is “rationally irreconcilable with the original inculpatory evidence.” No rational juror could have found David Wood guilty in light of this new evidence, including that:

* DNA testing has conclusively excluded David Wood as the contributor of male DNA found on a bloodstain on the yellow sunsuit of the victim Dawn Smith.
* Police detectives handed their investigative files to the jail￾house snitches, Randy Wells and James Carl Sweeney, to help them fabricate their testimony that David Wood con￾fessed to being the Desert Killer. George M. Hall, whom the State hoped to use as a third jailhouse snitch, witnessed fused to participate in their scheme.
* Wells literally “got away with murder” when a capital murder charge against him was dismissed in exchange for his testimony against David Wood. Wells was later indicted for aggravated perjury for testifying falsely against his co-defendants in their murder trials.
* Sweeney received $13,000 for his testimony against David Wood.
* David Wood was under police surveillance on the days that two of the victims disappeared. The police did not see him with either of the victims.
* The pickup truck that the jailhouse informants testified David Wood always used in carrying out the murders was seriously damaged in a traffic accident in late July 1987. It was taken to an auto salvage yard where it remained for the entire month of August, when three of the victims went missing.
* The police pressured Judith Brown Kelling, a heroin addict and prostitute, to falsely accuse David Wood of sexual assault so they could take him “off the streets” while they continued to build their case against him as the Desert Killer. Kelling admitted that a different man assaulted her. But Kelling was allowed to testify at the capital murder trial about this extraneous offense so that the State would be able to prove David Wood’s identity as the Desert Killer and his modus operandi.
* The State’s scientific expert gave misleading testimony that fibers found in a vacuum cleaner bag associated with David Wood “matched” fibers collected from one of the crime scenes.
* Three witnesses saw the victim Ivy Williams after the date the State alleged she was last seen, leaving a bar with David Wood.
* An alternative suspect gave five conflicting statements to the police and failed a polygraph examination. The police collected biological samples from him, but those samples have never been tested to determine if he contributed the male DNA found on Dawn Smith’s yellow sunsuit.

The El Paso Police Department’s premature and myopic focus on David Wood set in motion an investigation plagued by tunnel vision, where the police continually assumed the worst about David Wood without adequately exploring—or even considering—alternatives. Instead, the police dismissed or explained away or suppressed evidence that undermined their presumption. Without DNA evidence or eyewitness testimony or a confession, the State admitted that it had “purely a circumstantial-evidence case.”

Further, we are concerned that while the vast majority of states with capital punishment continue on a downward trend of executions, Texas has continued to go against trend by carrying on an aggressive execution schedule.

We, the undersigned, ask that you do everything within your power to stop this execution, including issuing a stay, and seeking a path to clemency in the case.

Thank you for time and attention to this urgent and serious matter.