US killer executed for 1984 murder
US murderer David Leon Woods was executed by lethal injection early today for killing a 77-year-old man during a 1984 burglary.
Woods, 42, was pronounced dead at 12.35am local time, said officials at the Indiana State Prison.
The US Supreme Court rejected requests that Woods’ execution be stayed, as did the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels also denied clemency for Woods yesterday. The state Parole Board had earlier unanimously recommended against granting clemency.
Woods’ lawyers had tried to stop the execution on the grounds that Indiana’s lethal injection protocol constituted cruel and unusual punishment. He also disputed the state court’s method of determining whether he was mentally handicapped, which could have rendered him ineligible for the death penalty.
“It is my wish that the joy of peace through forgiveness be shared to those who are living in the past,” Woods said in a final written statement. “Jesus Christ is the one. Let’s all come together and help one another.”
Woods was the first person put to death in Indiana since Marvin Bieghler on January 27, 2006. Before that, the state executed five people in seven months in 2005. That was the most in one year in Indiana since 1938, when eight men were electrocuted over nine months.
Woods was convicted of killing Juan Placencia during a 1984 burglary in Garrett, about 20 miles north of Fort Wayne.
Woods spent 22 years on death row. During his clemency hearing last month, Woods said he broke into Placencia’s house because he thought he wouldn’t be home and he wanted to collect belongings of his mother, Placencia’s former girlfriend. He said he stabbed Placencia because he startled him.
