Tom Green County Native’s Execution Halted Again by Appeals Court

HUNTSVILLE, TX — David Leonard Wood, a Tom Green County native who has spent nearly 33 years on death row, had his scheduled execution this week halted again Tuesday by a Texas appeals court.

Wood, 67, who was born in San Angelo, was sentenced in 1992 for the murders of six girls and young women in El Paso.

Three other victims were also reported missing but never found.

Wood was scheduled to be executed Thursday, but the appeals court put his execution on pause "until further order," without elaborating in its order. Six of the nine judges made the decision, while two disagreed and one did not participate.

Wood was previously set for execution in 2009 before it was put on hold one day before it was scheduled to take place due to claims he was intellectually disabled. Those claims were later dismissed by a judge.

This was another delay for Wood, who was previously set for execution in 2009 when it was put on hold about 24 hours beforehand over claims he was intellectually disabled and thus ineligible for execution. Those claims were later rejected by a judge, and Wood had been set to die Thursday. 

Wood, a convicted sex offender, has long maintained his innocence. A DNA sample on one of the victims did not match Wood, which is the basis of his current defense.

However, all of the victims were seen for the last time with Wood or had a connection to him. The victims were found in the desert outside El Paso, which is why Wood became known as “The Desert Killer.”

Wood's execution was the second halted in the U.S. on Tuesday after a federal judge stopped Louisiana’s first death row execution using nitrogen gas, which was to take place next week.