John Richard Wooda 59-year-old American, was sentenced to death almost 25 years ago for having murdered a police officer in 2000. However, the sentence has not yet been carried out. It is that the man assures that it is immortal and, for your mental health, a judge ruled that he cannot be executed.
The magistrate Grace Knieof South Carolina, after hearing the testimony of mental health experts who evaluated Wood, gave rise to the statements of the man’s lawyers, who requested that the punishment not be applied, for «the debilitating effects of his schizophrenia».
The South Carolina Daily Gazette, the first media outlet in the United States to break the story, reported that the three experts consulted—a psychiatrist from the prosecution, as well as a psychiatrist and a psychologist from the defendant’s team—agreed that the man «did not meet the state’s dual legal requirement to be considered competent for execution.»
The first of them is that «cannot rationally or objectively understand the crimes for which he was triedthe reasons for his punishment or the nature of it.» The second, «cannot communicate rationally with their lawyers.»
The judge’s decision must now be reviewed by the state Supreme Court, which could uphold her ruling or reverse it.
The same media quoted Knie, who said that Wood believes he is immortal, that he already He has «died three times on death row» and will be resurrected again if the state executes him.
At the same time, Wood believes that the governor of South Carolina has already pardoned him, overturning his death sentence.
According to expert testimony, quoted in the local media, Wood is convinced that the judge at his 2002 trial, current Chief Justice John Kittredge, and the courtroom staff «were conspiring against him because they were agents of ‘Beloved Kevin Rudolph,’ a deity who, according to Wood, It is part of a battle for dominance of the planet«.
«Wood believes he was given wings and the gift of immortality to win this battle,» they added.
«The more I talk, the crazier I feel saying these things,» said Dr. Amanda Salas, a psychiatrist on the defense team, referring to Wood’s understanding of the world. «Nothing makes sense, and that is simply due to the persistence and development of his delusions.»
Wood was convicted of murder and a firearms offense in the death of state Highway Patrol Trooper Eric Nicholson on Dec. 6, 2000. Nicholson attempted to stop Wood, who was riding a moped on Interstate 85 in Greenville County, when Wood shot him five times.
In South Carolina there are 23 men on death row and Wood is the first to obtain an annulment of the punishment for this type of circumstances, since Capital Punishment was resumed in that region of the United States in 2024.
D.D.
