Live from Indianapolis: David Woods' Clemency Hearing

David's mother approached the front of the auditorium and spoke in a hushed, reserved tone. She put forth just enough effort to make her terse answers barely audible. When the defense attorney asked her the names and ages of her children, she paused and finally stated that she didn't know their ages. When asked to simply recount their names, she hesitantly proceeded to name her six children, with grinding hesitation between each name. When asked which of the siblings were David's full brothers and sisters, she said that three were, but only gave two names.

Mary Pilkington stated that, while she testified against David at his trial, she did so without her knowledge. According to Pilkington, the prosecutor "put his arms around her" and told her "I'll get your son off and I'll help you and take you out to dinner." After a pause, Mrs. Pilkington added, "I didn't know I was on the wrong side."

The most shocking stories of the day came from one of David's sisters, Mary Anne. The themes of her stories focused on neglect, abuse, and outright disturbing scenarios. She began by recalling a time when she stepped on a rusty nail in the yard. When she limped inside, her mother's response to her whimpers was "you take care of it yourself." She told about the time her brother held the door shut when she had to go to the bathroom so she was forced to go in a bucket. When her mother found out, she took the feces out of the bucket and "shoved it in [her] mouth." One time when she was sitting on a porch railing, her mother backhanded her, sending her sprawling onto the pavement below. Her mother's response to her cries of pain: running in the house to get a camera in order to snap photos of her crying daughter.

The most gruesome and twisted recollection, however, was the time that Mary Anne's mother fed Mary Anne her pet rabbit, unbeknownst to her at the time and revealed the truth to Mary Anne only after she'd eaten the rabbit by showing her the severed head of the rabbit that she had placed in the back yard. Additionally, Mary Anne testified that when she was 10 years old, she was molested by her step father. When she told her mother about it, her mother told her "don't tell no one." When the police found out about the molestation, Mary Anne's mom simply replied that "she asked for it" and attempted to bribe Mary Anne with $50 if she changed her story.

The main theme running throughout the clemency testimony was summed up in her next sentence: "I just wanted her to love me."

Sherry Hudson, a capital habeas petition investigator, took a snipe at Alabama's prolific death penalty sentencing by stating that “even in Alabama this wouldn’t have been a death penalty case.” Her role in the David Woods saga was to investigate mitigating circumstances for presentation in Woods’ appeal as no investigation had been done in the initial case. Additionally, Woods’ file from the original case had been lost or destroyed.

Wanda Callahan, a pastor from the Church of the Brethren spoke passionately about David’s reformation since his time in prison. As a volunteer pastor for the prison for 36 years, Wanda has seen her share of “rough types” but states that by no means is David one of these personalities. She had nothing but good things to say about him, stating that “he has so much goodness” and that “he acts like the peacemaker on death row.” She warned the panel that if he were to be executed that “you’re going to do a great big harm to death row. He’s what holds that place together most of the time.” Additionally she stated that “I wish my churches were full of people like David,” backing her claim “I don’t know anyone who’s as good a Christian as David is.”

Ms. Callahan posed the observation that “he never felt safe until he was on death row. Isn’t that a horrible thing?” She left the panel with this parting thought: “If you kill David, it’s going to be a cruel case of injustice. If you do, I’m certainly going to pray for you.”

After presenting several other people close to David and his case who testified along the same lines of abuse and dysfunction as a child leading to his crime, the State presented their side of the argument, backed by six members of the victim’s family.

The deputy prosecutor presented the perception that Woods “learned over time” buzz words and terms alluding to mitigation. He emphasized that Woods was the leader of the robbery and that at least 29 judges in 6 different courts have written 8 different opinions all affirming the sentence of death for Woods. He stated that “the defense is asking you to believe that all those judges and juries were unreasonable.” Additionally, he rebuffed Woods’ good behavior on the row, stating that it would be ludicrous that “he should be rewarded for not having committed more crimes.”

Additionally, the deputy prosecutor called the ABA report, released in February, a product of the “moratorium project” and claimed that it contained “many assertions” that “are false or inaccurate.” Ultimately, he concluded stating that “no reasonable person would have voted differently.”

Juan Placencia’s granddaughter spoke about her grandfather saying that he “brought those children up to love God, family and country.” She listed his 13 children and 72 grandchildren all by name, a process that took several minutes. She stated that “our community is a community of love and tradition” but cautioned that “life is not always the way we wish it would be,” refusing to accept Woods’ upbringing as an excuse for the killing. She read several letters from family members not in attendance which cited Juan’s pleas for mercy as he was stabbed, the need for enforcement of laws as a fundamental element of society, and ultimately struck the tone that “Juan’s pleas only took seconds, not years.”

Juan’s daughter, Catherine Placencia, stated that Woods “took the best man in the world: our father.” Additionally she refused to accept Woods’ childhood as a mitigating circumstance: “…he blames everything… he’s gotta look in the mirror and blame himself, because he’s the one who did this to my father.”

Another of Juan’s daughters, Mary Anne Petrie, gave a tearful statement, showing a picture of the family with Juan stating that “we’ve got pictures to look at, that’s it.” Also she qualified her desire for an execution by saying that “this is justice, it isn’t revenge.” She accused Woods of spewing falsehoods about his faith and his rationale for the murder: “No Christian would lie like he’s doing.”

Two more of Placencia’s descendants gave statements which focused on Woods making conscious choices which led to the murder and also made the conscious choice to stab Juan Placencia 21 times. One of Juan’s grandsons, Glen McDonald begged that the board “allow justice to be served so that another healing process may begin.”

After rebuttals from both sides which essentially summarized the main points of the pleas by both sides, the panel was adjourned for deliberation. Upon their return at 2:30 pm, each panel member read their letters of recommendation to Governor Daniels. Each member of the panel recommended that Governor Daniels deny clemency. These full statements will be posted on the website later, but they all focused around the severity of the crime and its inexcusability, despite Woods’ upbringing.