Alvin Melleth

She thought the execution would happen a year after David Wood got his death sentence, maybe a year and a half.

Instead, she waited.

She waited as David Wood lost appeal after appeal.

Five years go by, 10 years.

After 17 years, an execution is finally scheduled.

It's 2009.

Marsha flies out to witness it, only to get a call the night before, saying it was called off.

Apparently, there's this new lawyer, Greg Warchuk, arguing David Wood has an intellectual disability.

Marcia finds this absurd, and the courts ultimately reject this appeal.

But it takes them five years to rule on it.

Just enough time for a whole new round of litigation about DNA testing that takes another decade.

All the while, Marcia waits.

There's something almost methodical about her patience.

In the course of her long wait, Marsha lost others.

Her husband died, and then her older daughter died, too.

Even for someone like Marsha, someone who does not wear her grief loudly, there are limits.

Is there a particular reason why you'd rather her take the lead?

On February 21st, just under three weeks from David Wood's execution date, it's pencils down for the defense team.

Time for them to show their work.

They file what's called a subsequent application for writ of habeas corpus.