Craig Wood sits on Missouri’s short list of condemned men. The Springfield man, convicted in the abduction, sexual assault and killing of 10‑year‑old Hailey Owens, is one of eight people the state has sentenced to die. Wood was convicted in November 2017 and was sentenced to death by Greene County Judge Thomas Mountjoy on January 11, 2018. State records and recent reporting show that none of the eight men currently has an execution date.
A recent review of Missouri Department of Corrections records by the Springfield Daily Citizen names Wood among the eight and notes that the department’s files document dispositions for 189 people sentenced to death since 1989, including dozens of sentences later changed to life or otherwise resolved. That review lists 56 people whose death sentences were changed to life and a number who died in prison before execution. According to the Springfield Daily Citizen, the paper compiled the counts from DOC records to show how rare actual executions have become relative to historic death‑sentence totals.
Where Condemned Prisoners Are Kept And How Executions Are Carried Out
Missouri does not operate a separate, long‑term death‑row unit. Condemned men are housed at Potosi Correctional Center and are moved into closer custody only if and when an execution warrant is signed. The state’s execution chamber is at the Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center in Bonne Terre. Facility information is available on the Missouri Department of Corrections Potosi page and the department’s Missouri Department of Corrections ERDCC page, and researchers have documented that Missouri began “mainstreaming” death‑sentenced inmates into Potosi’s general population in the early 1990s.
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