A 38-year-old El Paso serial killing case will return to court Sept. 15 when the man convicted of killing six girls and young women and burying them in the Northeast desert begins his latest effort to proclaim his innocence.
David Leonard Wood, now 68, was convicted of capital murder in 1992 and has been on death row since early 1993. His conviction was based largely on circumstantial evidence that tied him to the victims.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, without explanation, issued a ruling July 30 that the trial court should examine Wood’s claims that he’s innocent, that he was a victim of prosecutorial misconduct, and that he had ineffective counsel. The state’s highest criminal court had previously rejected a number of Wood’s appeals over the decade.
Wood was scheduled to be executed March 13, but the Court of Criminal Appeals issued a stay two days before, also without explanation. The court also had blocked a scheduled 2009 execution date to allow Wood to explore a claim that his low intellectual capacity meant he shouldn’t be executed, a claim the appeals court ultimately rejected.
The Sept. 15 hearing, which will be conducted virtually, is a status conference, which likely will outline a schedule for motions and future hearings. Dick Alcalá, a former San Angelo judge who now lives in El Paso, was appointed July 17 to preside over Wood’s post-conviction appeals at the trial court level.
Wood is required to attend the virtual hearing, according to court records.
Alcalá’s eventual ruling on the appeal is almost certain to be appealed to the El Paso-based Eighth Court of Appeals, and then again to the Court of Criminal Appeals. The process likely could take years.
At least nine girls and young women disappeared in and around Northeast El Paso in 1987, and the bodies of six of them were eventually found in a desert area that is now Painted Dunes Golf Course.
The disappearances and deaths frightened and horrified El Pasoans. It remains El Paso’s deadliest serial killing spree.
Wood, who had an extensive record of sexual offenses, was quickly identified as a suspect by El Paso police, but he wasn’t indicted until 1990. His 1992 trial was moved to Dallas because of extensive pre-trial publicity about the crimes, and the jury found him guilty of capital murder and sentenced him to death.
He has always maintained his innocence, though no court has yet agreed with him.
Only 14 of the 170 people currently on Texas’ death row have been there longer than Wood’s 32 years.
Wood has been on death row longer than any other El Pasoan.
The post Sept. 15 hearing to shape next steps in David Wood’s Northeast El Paso serial killing appeal appeared first on El Paso Matters.
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