Court halts the execution of man in child's slaying
By Michael Graczyk
Associated Press
Thursday, October 23, 2008
HUNTSVILLE -- The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Thursday stopped the scheduled execution of convicted killer Bobby Wayne Woods after lawyers raised new claims that the 42-year-old man is mentally retarded and ineligible for the death penalty.
Woods had been set to die Thursday evening for the 1997 slaying of his ex-girlfriend's 11-year-old daughter after abducting her and her brother from their home in Granbury, southwest of Fort Worth, in 1997.
Woods said he wasn't responsible for Sarah Patterson's death and blamed it on a cousin who subsequently committed suicide. He said injuries to her 9-year-old brother, Cody, were the result of an accident.
Woods would have been the second Texas prisoner executed this week and 13th this year. Two more men face execution next week in the country's most active death penalty state.
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