Innocence Waiting to Die

Steven Woods

Innocence Waiting to Die

As Texas Governor and presidential hopeful Rick Perry skirts controversy over the execution of a man many reasonably argue was innocent, Perry prepares to do it again. On February 17th 2004, Governor Perry was instrumental in the execution of Cameron Todd Willingham who had been convicted of murder for the arson deaths of his three children. With relentless fervor, Willingham proclaimed his innocence up to and including the final words he spoke only moments before lethal injection was administered. This was in spite of compelling evidence provided by renowned fire investigator Gerald Hurst. Who found that the forensics responsible for Willingham’s conviction were not consistent with modern science and that the fire could not be attributed to arson. His investigation was further supported by a report done on the behalf of the Texas Forensic Science Commission and a number of the nations top experts in the field. Responding to the scientific consensus reached in the investigation of Willingham’s case, Perry attempted to discredit them by referring to them as “so-called experts” whose scientific conclusions amount to nothing more than anti-death penalty propaganda. In addition to his callous dismissal of their findings, Rick Perry brazenly squashed an investigation into the Willingham case. Doing so two days before an expert witness was to testify by suddenly dismissing three individuals from the Texas Forensic Science Commission, including then chairman Sam Basset. Basset’s replacement immediately postponed the hearing and petitioned Texas Attorney General Greg Abbot, as to whether or not they could investigate the Willingham case. Needless to say, Abbot announced that they could not. Fortunately for Perry, it was a mere sixteen days before he announced his bid for the presidency. On a whole, when being faced with the likelihood of having killed an innocent person, Perry appeared self-congratulatory about his indifference to the tier of facts and the issue of plausible innocence that was put before him.     

  Now many will watch with dread as the apathy that was paramount in the handling of Willingham’s case, is reanimated in the life and death case of Steven Woods. In his blog, Wrongfully Convicted & Scheduled for Execution on 9/13/11, which is a part of a series that can be found at texaskills.com or at his support page on Facebook, Steven describes what his life and the life of his family has been reduced to. Saying, “The next time my mom will get to hug me or even hold my hand will be this September, after I'm dead… Either way, all I can ever do is sit around in confinement 23 hours a day, waiting to die.” Like Willingham, Steven has always maintained that he is innocent.

Twenty-one at the time and with no prior criminal record, Steven Woods was convicted for the shooting deaths of a young couple in Denton County, Texas and sentenced to die by lethal injection. To this day, there exist no DNA that implicates Steven as the man responsible for the killings and no eyewitness testimony to support the claim that he was a participant. To cast a further shadow of doubt over his conviction, a man by the name of Marcus Rhodes stated at his sentencing for the same crime that he alone was responsible for knowingly and intentionally killing both murder victims without the slightest insinuation that Steven was an active participant or had any prior knowledge of Rhodes intent. Not only were the firearms used in the slaying registered to Rhodes and produced only his fingerprints, they were as well found beneath his bed and the belonging of the two murder victims were retrieved from his car. Marcus Rhodes had also admitted to a previous killing in California and in spite of having done so, Rhodes received life in prison where as Steven received the death penalty. Among the most startling things to occur in Stevens Woods case was when Denton County Judge Lee Gabriels struck from the protocol a latex glove, which could have possibly exonerated Steven. Gabriels action successfully prohibited its use in any of Steven’s following appeals as proof of innocence. Furthermore, all the testimonial evidence that was presented against Wood’s is considered hearsay and was provided by those familiar with Marcus Rhodes. With one witness testimony being provided by an avid heroin user that was awarded $1,000 for his testimony and one signing an affidavit later on that she had provided her testimony only after having been coerced to do so. Addressing the growing number of supporters for Steven Woods, renowned activist and American intellectual Noam Chomsky weighed in on Stevens plight. Saying, “ "I think the death penalty is a crime no matter what the circumstances, and it is particularly awful in the Steven Woods case...”

In light of all of this, it still remains unlikely that Governor Perry will stay the execution to further examine Steven Woods case. It is no secret that avidly supporting the death penalty in Texas is the states political cornerstone. it is easily argued that advocacy for the death penalty can be seen as a Making it a lethal dynamic for those appealing on the row, especially when it comes to electing judges to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, which are responsible for hearing all of the death penalty cases in Texas. Even so, there are few if any noteworthy politicians pass or present who transformed their support of the death penalty into the defining quality of their leadership. Utilizing his past refusal to even consider the cases of the condemned on death row and his controversial stance on imposing the death penalty on juveniles and the mentally retarded, Perry has been able to further position himself as a fearless ideologue that remains uncompromising in his nature no matter what is at stake. Unwilling to acknowledge the bankrupt morality in disregarding the sanctity of life and the emotional toll taken upon all those involved, Perry almost seems to revel in his dismissal of public pressure when regarding the cases of those on death row. In fact, seeming to thriving off of the controversy from which it brings.

 For example, despite opposition from former President Bush and the current White House Administration, Rick Perry refused to provide a 30-day stay to convicted Mexican national, Humberto Leal Garcia. Garcia had not been informed of his right to speak to an official from the Mexican consulate. Garcia’s execution set a precedent for denying diplomatic access, which can ultimately put U.S. nationals in danger if detained abroad. Within the same month, Perry again denied staying the execution of Mark Stroman, despite the plea of Rais Bhuiyan, one of Stroman’s victims who failed in his attempt to have Stroman’s death penalty sentence commuted to life in prison.     

For abolitionist of the death penalty and even for those who wish to see it administered with in reason, they find themselves backed into a corner, not knowing if it would cause greater harm to petition Perry for fear of provoking him. For many, the fear is that if you keep quit, Perry will kill them. Speak up and he’ll make the whole world watch, as he prospers further from it in the presidential polls         

 http://www.facebook.com/SaveStevenWoods

http://texaskills.com/

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Eugene Ochs (Eugene Ochs)
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