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El Paso Desert Killer’s Execution Halted
The scheduled execution of David Leonard Wood, 67, was stopped Tuesday by a Texas appeals court. Wood, who has spent over three decades on death row, was convicted of the murders of six young women and girls whose bodies were discovered buried in the desert near El Paso.
The court’s three-page order provided no details for the stay, simply stating that the execution was paused “until further order.” Six of the nine judges supported the stay. Judges Mary Lou Keel and Gina Parker dissented, while Judge Bert Richardson, who presided over Wood’s appeals in trial court since 2011, did not participate in the decision.
This is not the first delay in Wood’s case. A previous execution date in 2009 was postponed roughly 24 hours prior due to claims of intellectual disability, which would have made him ineligible for the death penalty. Those claims were later dismissed by a judge, leading to the execution date set for this week.
The 1987 murders went unsolved for years until, according to authorities, Wood confessed to a cellmate, boasting about being the “Desert Killer.” The victims, ranging in age from 14 to 23, were found in shallow graves in the same desert area northeast of El Paso.
Authorities believe Wood offered the victims rides, then drove them into the desert where he sexually assaulted and murdered them. Two other girls and a young woman reported missing around the same time were never found.
Wood, a mechanic and repeat convicted sex offender, has consistently maintained his innocence. In recent appeal documents, he stated, “I did not do it.
I am innocent of this case. I’ll fight it.”
He will remain in custody at the Polunsky Unit within the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
Wood’s case marks the second execution halted in the U.S. on Tuesday. Earlier, a federal judge stopped a Louisiana execution scheduled for next week—the state’s first using nitrogen gas.