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The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled 7-2 to put Wood's August 24 execution on hold after the defendant called into question the testimony and scientific evidence provided by Dr. James Grigson. "After reviewing applicant's subsequent application, we find that his third and fourth allegations satisfy the requirements... Accordingly, we remand those two claims to the trial court for resolution," the appellate court wrote.
In Texas, Dr. Grigson is also known as "Dr. Death" for the hundreds of capital cases during which he has testified. Expelled from the American Psychiatric Association in 1995, in Wood's case he served as an expert. In his appeal to the court, Wood's lawyers accused Grigson of lying to jurors about how many cases he had testified in and how often he found the convict to be a future danger, allegedly misleading them.
"Three former jurors have said they feel the government's presentation to them of a discredited psychiatrist who predicted with certainty, and without evaluating Mr. Wood, that Mr. Wood would be criminally violent in the future was unfair. ... The jurors no longer support a death sentence," Wood's attorney, Jared Tyler, said. "The psychiatrist had been expelled from the American Psychiatric Association and the Texas Society of Psychiatric Physicians for the same unethical conduct as he engaged in Mr. Wood's case."
Comment: A good ending to an 18 years on death row bad story. This case should be a wake-up call for self-serving testimonies of paid "experts," the inherent flaws in the US justice system and certain unreasonable laws that rule the society. What are the chances?