Dear Gov. Abbott,

My name is Ceila Shatat and I am a junior at Loras College. I am writing you to discuss your heinous attempt toward enforcing the “law.” I am fairly disturbed with your lack of concern and placing of Wood to be executed. Allow me to explain as to why I believe this execution is unjust and quite frankly disgusting.

Jeff Wood has been documented to be intellectually and emotionally impaired since childhood, approx. 12 years of age since psychological evaluations were taking place. That said, both you and the court were aware of this impairment which clearly has a profound impact on Reneau’s unfortunate domination over Wood. To ignore this fact, would be to execute him solely for his disabilities and impairment, as the ailments are responsible for even Wood’s initial involvement with Reneau.

Not to mention the fact that Wood has never even taken a life, nor was he present in the facility during the murder. Now, I understand that Wood’s involvement warrants some type of consequence, as he was driving the vehicle, however it is documented in his girlfriend’s affidavit that he specifically told Reneau to leave his gun and that they would not pursue the safe. That said, Wood’s transportation is nothing short of casual, as he, a man with an IQ of 80, was very clearly under the impression that A) Reneau was not armed and that B) Reneau would not be pursuing the safe, via Wood’s statement as documented in his girlfriend’s affidavit.

Doing more research, I have found that you allowed a discredited psychiatrist to be a testimony on the trail for psychological evaluation and “diagnoses” of Wood. I also find it ironic that almost every case that Grigson has testified for, the defendant is on death row in a matter of months. There was no documentation that Grigson used, not even using medical records, standard evaluations, or statistics, but rather an emotional attempt at manipulating the psychology of the jury. Not to mention he even lost his psychiatry license in 1996.

"The problem with Dr. Grigson was not that inmates were placed on death row, but that he was fundamentally biased in his assessments, and was performing cursory evaluations and drawing broad and damning conclusions from only limited information -- a problem of credibility and objectivity,"

Let’s discuss the Law of Parties, since this is your poor attempt as charging an innocent man with the charges of homicide. “Texas has what is called the "law of parties" in criminal cases. It is governed by Section 7.02 of the Texas Penal Code. Tex.Pen.C. 7.02(2) says that if a person, “solicits, encourages, directs, aids, or attempts to aid the other person to commit the offense…" then they are criminally liable as well.” Nowhere does the law of parties state they must or will receive the same criminal liability as the one committing the actual offense, the shooter, for example. All the law of parties states is that Wood would also be criminally liable, it does not state in any way that his liability would be equal to that of the man who actually pulled the trigger, as Reneau did. To sentence Wood to death, would be to charge him with the same liability as Reneau, which is simply unjust and illogical, as he in no way had the same involvement as Reneau, so that begs the question, why is Wood receiving the same consequence as that of a man who committed murder? Does logic not apply to court of law in Texas?

The fact that anyone even has to explain to you how heinous and unjust executing an intellectually and emotionally impaired man who only drove a vehicle is absolutely baffling. You have a law degree, you are not without the knowledge of how illogical and morally corrupt executing Wood would be. Reneau took a life and lost his, 16 years later repressed aggression is being projected on Wood. I will not entertain the notion that you are just unaware of the facts.

I demand that Wood be given a new trail, where sufficient evidence is presented, death doctors are not testimonies, and the law of parties is not bent solely for ignorance.

I expect you to follow morale and logic, Abbott.

-Ceila