By this logic, Clemenza didn’t kill Pauly because he was taking a leak outside the car and worrying about the canoli.
“Law of Parties” ....hum...
Seems to me, if you don’t actually murder someone but only participated, you should get a life term for it and not pay with you own life since the actual murderer already paid with his...
But I don’t plan to lose any sleep over it...
Accessory to felony murder. If they won’t execute him, hive him life without parole in the Texas state pen. I’d rather be dead.
He was driving the getaway car and was waiting in it when the clerk was shot. Then he went in and helped steal the cashbox. He said he didn’t know there was going to be a shooting. Evidence was introduced at trial by a debunked shrink who didn’t examine him that he would do violence in the future.
I’d say you pal around with a murderer robbing joints, you share in what the murderer does - and the punishment.
“He was convicted of taking part in a 1996 convenience store robbery during which clerk Kriss Keeran was fatally shot.”
He was committing a violent felony and someone was killed in the process, THAT is capital murder.
Osama Bin Laden never killed anyone. Neither did Hitler.
I lived in the town where/when the murder of Kris Keeran took place. I am sorry to see the execution has been delayed.
Here in Texas, when we find a nest of rattlers we take out the whole nest. Same goes for rabid dogs on the street.
The headline says this murderer was an innocent dupe - based only on the lawyer’s claim that this thug was “just” the driver for the armed robber who fired the fatal shot. I’m okay with executing the thug, and the same for all participants in armed robberies. Having been robbed, I understand how little positive contribution these felons make to society.
At heart, the principle of the felony murder rule is that when one sets out to commit a major violent crime and murder ensues while doing so, the killer and anyone else involved in the crime can be charged with that murder even if no one specifically intended to kill. As one might surmise, robbery-murder and gang related assaults and street killings are the most frequent source of such charges.
Notably, the death penalty for the crime of felony murder squares with the Constitution. The Supreme Court has held that the death penalty may be imposed on someone who was a participant in a violent felony and who acted with reckless indifference to human life. Planning and providing backup for the armed robbery of a gas station fits the bill even if, as is claimed here, the defendant is outside when it occurs.
Contrary to Reuters' account in the article posted, Jeffrey Wood was deeply involved in the robbery. As recounted by the federal Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in 2001 in a case involving the shooter, a man named Reneau:
“Over the course of approximately two weeks in December 1995, Reneau and Jeffrey Wood, who resided together with their girlfriends, made plans to rob a gas station located near their home. Initially, Wood and Reneau believed that they had convinced Kris Keeran and William Bunker, who worked as cashiers at the gas station, to participate in the robbery. Keeran and Bunker soon made clear, however, that they would not provide any assistance. Nevertheless, Wood and Reneau decided to carry out the robbery on their own."
"Early in the morning of January 2, 1996, Reneau entered the gas station with a gun in his hand while Wood waited outside. Reneau pointed the gun at Keeran, who was standing behind the counter, and told Keeran to go into a back office. Keeran did not move, and Reneau shot him in the head. Proceeding with the robbery, Reneau went into the back office and took a safe. Wood, who had entered the gas station after Reneau fired the gun, removed a box of cash and a videocassette recorder containing a surveillance tape. They loaded the three items onto the truck that they had driven to the gas station and left. Keeran died almost instantaneously.”
In sum, both on the law and the facts, the Wood case is far different than what Reuters reported based on the false claims of his lawyers. I suggest that, on balance, Jeffrey Wood is a poor choice on whom to confer sympathy as a supposed victim of injustice.