Robert William Wood, a 27-year-old officer with the Dallas Police Department, was a United States Army veteran who had served in the Vietnam War. After his military service, he joined the police force, where he had served for two years. He was married and is remembered for his dedicated service to his country and community.
In the early morning hours of Sunday, November 28, 1976, Officer Wood and his partner, Teresa Turko, were on patrol. Shortly after midnight, they initiated a traffic stop in the 3400 block of North Hampton Road because the vehicle ahead of them was being driven without its headlights on. As Officer Wood approached the driver's side of the car, the driver shot him five times with a .22 caliber handgun. The vehicle then sped away, and Officer Wood died at the scene.
The investigation by the Dallas Police Department quickly led them to a 16-year-old from Vidor, Texas, named David Ray Harris. Harris had stolen a car and a pistol and had bragged to friends that he had "offed a pig" in Dallas. When questioned, however, Harris pointed the finger at Randall Dale Adams, a 27-year-old man with no criminal record who had recently arrived in Dallas from Ohio. Harris claimed he had picked up Adams, whose car had run out of gas, the day before the shooting. According to Harris, Adams was driving the stolen car and was the one who shot Officer Wood.
Based almost entirely on the testimony of Harris, who was granted immunity, Randall Dale Adams was arrested and charged with capital murder. During his 1977 trial, several alleged eyewitnesses also testified against him. Adams maintained his innocence, stating that Harris had dropped him off at his motel before the shooting occurred. Despite inconsistencies in the prosecution's case, Adams was found guilty and sentenced to death.
For years, Adams remained on death row, coming within three days of execution in 1979 before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned his death sentence due to an error in jury selection. His sentence was commuted to life in prison. The case gained international attention with the release of the 1988 documentary film, "The Thin Blue Line." Filmmaker Errol Morris's investigation uncovered suppressed evidence, perjured testimony, and prosecutorial misconduct. The film strongly suggested that David Harris was the actual killer and that Adams had been wrongfully convicted. In the film, Harris made statements that heavily implicated himself in Officer Wood's murder.
The documentary's findings led to a judicial review of the case. In 1989, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturned Adams's conviction, and prosecutors declined to retry him. After spending more than 12 years in prison for a crime he did not commit, Randall Dale Adams was released. He died in 2010. David Ray Harris was never charged for the murder of Officer Wood. He was later convicted and sentenced to death for an unrelated 1985 murder in Beaumont, Texas. Harris was executed by lethal injection on June 30, 2004.
The murder of Officer Robert Wood remains a case that profoundly illustrates a tragic failure of the justice system. Officer Wood is buried at Carson Cemetery in Ector, Texas. His name is engraved on the memorial for fallen officers of the Dallas Police Department, a tribute to his sacrifice in the line of duty.
