Jeff Wood is scheduled to be executed by the state of Texas next week, despite the fact that he never killed anyone. Even prosecutors acknowledge that.

Essentially, Wood "is on death row for robbery," as his sister put it.

On Jan. 2, 1996, Wood was sitting in his truck outside a Kerrville convenience store when his friend Daniel Reneau went in to steal a safe. When the clerk, Kriss Keeran, didn't comply, Reneau fatally shot him. After the shooting, Wood joined Reneau in the store; they removed the safe and security footage before fleeing.

Reneau confessed to the crime and was convicted of capital murder in 1997; he was executed in 2002. Wood faces the same fate Wednesday. Prosecutors argued that Wood knew Reneau would kill Keeran if the clerk didn't cooperate with the robbery and was therefore also liable for the murder. However, testimony in Reneau's trial claimed that Wood had told Reneau to leave his gun at home and saw him put it down.

Texas' law of parties allows an accomplice to be charged for a crime he neither committed nor had intent to commit if that crime "should have been anticipated." This newspaper generally has no qualms with ensuring that accomplices pay for a crime they help plan and carry out. However, as applied to capital punishment, we do.

Wood, who has an IQ around 80 and has previously been ruled incompetent in court, is certainly not innocent — it's clear he helped plan the robbery and removed security footage after the murder occurred. But that is not the same thing as deserving to die.

Supporters of the death penalty argue that it is the appropriate punishment for "the worst of the worst." It's difficult to see how that category includes people like Wood, who did not pull the trigger nor had any intention of doing so.

Cases like this reinforce our belief that state-sanctioned killings are arbitrary. That's one reason this board has been calling for an end to the death penalty since 2007. Writ large, we are unable to support a punishment that is so unfairly applied, nor one that could result in the execution of an innocent person.

The law of parties is a particularly egregious facet of Texas' capital punishment system. Texas is among only five states in the nation that actively pursue such state felony murder statutes. The state has no business executing defendants who were involved in a crime but did not personally take a life.

Today, family members and supporters plan to hand-deliver a "save Jeff Wood" petition with thousands of signatures to Gov. Greg Abbott and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, who will determine Wood's fate: We hope the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles recommends clemency and Abbott commutes Wood's sentence.

The state of Texas should not execute a man for a crime he did not commit.