Wood Trial Expenses Adding Up

As the clock keeps ticking, the amount of money spent for the defense of convicted killer David Leonard Wood keeps growing.

After more than 23 years, Wood’s defense team is asking for two more separate hearings, hoping to spare his life.

Oftentimes, in Texas, a death penalty case takes about seven to eight years from the date of conviction to when every appeal is exhausted.

According to the latest figures from the deathrow.org, the cost of a typical death penalty case is a little more than $2.3 million.

But Wood’s case is anything but typical.

In some ways it’s unique, and because so many laws have changed since his conviction, his defense has the chance to use different sets of standards to its advantage.

Wood, who was brought in from Huntsville, Texas, for a hearing earlier this week, in 1987 was accused of killing six women and girls who had disappeared in Northeast El Paso.

In 1992, he was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death.

In 2009, he was saved by an appeal after a 2002 Supreme Court ruling that a mentally disabled person could not be put to death.

Attorneys are spending a lot of resources digging through old records to prove this.

His defense will also file a motion to spend more money on DNA testing, even though the state never relied on DNA evidence to convict him. The state law is expected to change this September, widening the scope of DNA testing.

San Antonio visiting Judge Bert Richardson’s ruling on whether the DNA testing will be allowed should be filed by next week.

Depending on Richardson’s decision, either the prosecution or defense are expected to appeal.

Meanwhile, a separate hearing on whether Wood is mentally disabled has been set for mid-October.