Texas set to execute man wiith 'severe disabilities' for being getaway driver in bungled robbery

The state of Texas is set to execute a man with 'severe mental, emotional and learning disabilities', despite never being charged for murder.

Jeffrey Wood acted as a getaway driver for a man who murdered a shopkeeper in 1996 but was convicted under the state's controversial "law of parties" rule that implicates anyone involved in a criminal plot.

Despite all parties agreeing that Wood did not know the man would be killed, did not fire the gun and did not witness the murder, the 42-year-old will be sentenced to lethal injection on 24 August, 2016.

Human rights groups have urged the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, alongside Governor Greg Abbott, for clemency in the form of an eleventh hour stay of execution.

Wood was 22-years-old when he was convicted for a bungled petrol station robbery, carried out by his friend Daniel Earl Reneau, in 1996.

The trial heard how he acted as a getaway driver for Reneau, who entered the petrol station in Kerrville and ordered Kriss Keeran to empty the safe.

Reneau shot him in the head, killing him instantly, after Keeran hesitated but Wood helped his accomplice remove the safe. The pair were identified and arrested the next day.

A jury heard how Wood had told his accomplice not to bring a gun and his supporters affirm that Wood was threatened with a gun by Reneau. His campaigners say Wood suffers from "severe mental, emotional, and learning disabilities". Reneau was executed in June 2002

Texas executes more prisoners than any other US state and Wood's defence lawyer Kate Black said: she was surprised at the move go ahead. "I have never seen an execution in the United States with this low of a level of culpability".

Wood's daughter Paige Rowan said to the Washington Post that she has nightmares about his execution: "Please don't allow this to happen," she wrote. "Don't take my father away."