From Deadline.com Jack O’Connell and Laura Dern have been set to star in Trial by Fire, a fact-based drama that Ed Zwick will direct. Oscar-winning Precious scribe Geoffrey Fletcher wrote the script, adapted from the 2009 article in The New Yorker that won David Grann the Polk Award. Zwick will produce through his Bedford Falls…read more
State Rep Terry Canales has filed a new law of parties bill in the special session. HB 252 is different from the bills in the regular session. It adds a section that directs the jury “to determine based on the evidence admitted at the guilt or innocence stage whether the defendant is guilty of the…read more
Terri Been, sister of Jeff Wood, testifying before Texas House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence on April 17, 2017 in support of law of parties reform bills. Under the provisions of the bills, a death sentence could not be sought or imposed on a defendant whose liability for a capital felony offense was based solely on…read more
Texas State Senator Eddie Lucio, Jr has again filed a bill (SB 597) to abolish the death penalty in Texas. This is the second session he has filed his abolition bill. When Senator Lucio filed similar legislation in 2015, it was the first time a state senator had ever filed legislation to completely abolish the death penalty in Texas. Senator…read more
Rep. Harold Dutton of Houston today filed HB 64, a bill to abolish the death penalty in Texas. Rep. Dutton also filed HB 147, a bill to prohibit the death penalty for people convicted under the law of parties. Jeff Wood received a stay of execution in August 2016 after many legislators expressed support by…read more
Attend the rally to stop the execution of Jeff Wood at the Texas Governor’s Mansion on Saturday, July 23, 2016. Tell Governor Abbott and the Board of Pardons and Paroles to stop the execution of Jeff Wood! Texas has set his execution for August 24th – despite the fact that he killed no one. Meet…read more
Jeff Wood is scheduled for execution in Texas on August 24, 2016 under the law of parties even though he did not kill anyone. We need to persuade the Texas governor and members of the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to commute Jeff’s death sentence. I have known Jeff’s family for many years. His sister Terri Been…read more
Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Jason Clark said Monday the agency has received court documents setting 42-year-old Jeffrey Wood for lethal injection Aug. 24. Wood was convicted under the Texas law of parties, which makes the participant in a capital murder equally culpable of the crime. Evidence showed his roommate, Daniel Reneau, fatally shot…read more
1) Alfred Dewayne Brown was exonerated and released after more than ten years on Texas death row for a crime he did not commit. He walked free and into the loving arms of his family and friends on June 8, 2015. “I went in an innocent man and I came out an innocent man,” said Brown….read more
Lester Bower, who had a strong case of innocence, was executed on June 8, 2015 after 31 years on Texas death row. He spent more time on death row than any other person executed in Texas. Bower maintained his innocence to the end. According to Jordan Smith of The Intercept, “serious questions remained about the state’s investigation and prosecution of Bower….read more