03 May 2026 :

April 22, 2026 - South Carolina. John Richard Wood, who believes he’s died repeatedly, can’t be executed, judge rules

A 59-year-old man sentenced to death for killing a state trooper in 2000 can’t be executed because of a mental illness that’s left him incoherent and believing he’s immortal, a Circuit Court judge has ruled.

John Richard Wood is the 1st condemned inmate in South Carolina found not competent to be executed since the state restarted capital punishment in September 2024. The 7 executions since then include 3 men who chose to die by firing squad — the latest in November.

Wood, convicted 24 years ago, was among death row inmates in line to receive a death warrant after exhausting their regular appeals.

But last week, after hearing testimony from mental health experts who evaluated Wood, Judge Grace Knie upheld his attorneys’ claim that the debilitating effects of his schizophrenia prohibit the state from putting him to death.

The 3 experts — a psychiatrist with the prosecution as well as a psychiatrist and a psychologist with Wood’s team — all agreed that Wood failed the state’s 2-pronged legal standard for competence to be executed.

One, Wood cannot rationally and factually understand the crimes for which he was tried, the reasons for his punishment and the nature of his punishment. Two, he cannot rationally communicate with his attorneys.

Knie’s April 22 ruling temporarily pauses the issuance of Wood’s death warrant. Her 12-page written decision must be reviewed by the state Supreme Court, which could uphold or overturn Knie’s decision.

Citing the mental health experts’ testimony during a 2-day hearing in Spartanburg in March, Knie said Wood believes he is immortal, that he has already “died 3 times on death row” and will again be resurrected if the state executes him.

At the same time, Wood thinks the South Carolina governor has already pardoned him, throwing out his death sentence.

Wood was found guilty of murder and a firearm offense for killing state Highway Patrol Trooper Eric Nicholson on Dec. 6, 2000. Nicholson tried to stop Wood, who was driving a moped on Interstate 85 in Greenville County, when Wood shot the trooper 5 times.

The experts also testified to Wood’s delusion-fueled worldview.

Although Wood understands why he received the death sentence, he mistakenly believes law enforcement officers were “trying to frame him for a brutal rape.”

Wood is convinced the judge at his 2002 trial — now-Chief Justice John Kittredge — and courtroom personnel were working against him because they were agents of “Beloved Kevin Rudolph,” a deity that in Wood’s mind is part of a battle to rule the planet. Wood believes he was given wings and the gift of immortality to win this battle.

“The more I talk, the more crazy I feel in saying these things,” Dr. Amanda Salas, a defense team psychiatrist, said of Wood’s concept of the world. “None of it makes sense, and that’s just the persistence and the well-developed nature of his delusional systems.”

The 2 other experts were Susan Knight, a psychologist for Wood’s team, and Dr. Matthew Gaskins, a psychiatrist for the state. When they evaluated Wood, the experts said, it was very difficult to have a rational conversation with him.

They said Wood’s mental illness has progressively gotten worse and he likely won’t be restored to competence, especially since he refuses to take medication.

In 1993, the state Supreme Court ruled an inmate can’t be forced to take medicine just to be executed. That decision, which found Fred Singleton incompetent, also set the two-pronged standard for what makes a death row inmate able to face execution. Singleton died on death row of natural causes last October at age 81.

Wood did not appear at the March hearing in Spartanburg.

His attorneys said he did not understand the purpose of the proceedings and refused to be transported from the Broad River Correctional Institution, the Columbia prison that houses death row.

Knie declined prosecutors’ request to order the state Department of Corrections and Wood’s court-appointed legal guardian to release his medical records or plan of care at prescribed times. His legal guardian said she can provide the prosecution with periodic updates on Wood’s mental status.

The state attorney general’s office, which handles death penalty appeals, declined to comment on Knie’s decision. Wood’s attorneys, from the nonprofit group Justice 360, also did not respond to a request for comment.

There are 23 men listed on South Carolina’s death row, though one is actually held in California on a separate murder conviction.

They include Steven Bixby, convicted of killing 2 law enforcement officers in 2003, who was found competent to be executed after an evidentiary hearing last year. Bixby has a pending appeal.

South Carolina resumed executions in September 2024 after a 13-year hiatus, in part because the state couldn’t obtain lethal injection drugs.

3 years earlier, the Legislature passed a law that reverted to the electric chair as the default method of execution and added death by firing squad as an option. It also kept lethal injection as an option if the prisons agency managed to secure the drugs again, which happened after legislators passed another law that keeps everything about the drugs secret.

A July 2024 ruling by the state Supreme Court, which upheld both electrocution and firing squad as constitutional, allowed death warrants to be issued.