The West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals has affirmed the denial of a habeas corpus petition from Jeffrey Ray Woods, who was convicted of killing three family members in a case that resulted in multiple life sentences without parole.
The court issued its memorandum decision on January 13, 2026, upholding the March 27, 2024, order from the Circuit Court of Ohio County that denied Woods' amended petition for a writ of habeas corpus. Woods had argued that the circuit court erred in not granting him habeas relief and should have vacated his convictions and awarded him a new trial in the underlying criminal action.
The high court found no substantial question of law and no prejudicial error in the lower court's decision, determining that oral argument was unnecessary for the appeal. The court applied West Virginia Rule of Appellate Procedure 21(c) in issuing its memorandum decision affirming the circuit court's order.
Woods was convicted in November 2005 by a jury on three counts of first-degree murder in a case involving a married couple and the wife's son, who was the husband's stepson. The jury did not recommend mercy for any of the murder convictions, which under West Virginia law meant Woods faced the possibility of life imprisonment without parole.
In addition to the murder charges, the jury convicted Woods of two counts of first-degree robbery and one count of conspiracy to commit robbery. The circuit court sentenced Woods to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for each of the three murder convictions. For the robbery convictions, the court imposed sentences of 120 years of incarceration for each first-degree robbery count and one to five years for the conspiracy charge. The court ordered that all sentences run consecutively.
The case underwent appellate review in February 2009 when the circuit court resentenced Woods for purposes of appeal. However, the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals refused Woods' criminal appeal in January 2010, leaving his convictions intact.
Woods first filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in August 2009, initiating post-conviction proceedings that would span more than a decade. Habeas corpus petitions allow convicted individuals to challenge their imprisonment on constitutional or legal grounds, typically alleging that their detention violates fundamental rights or that significant errors occurred during their trial or sentencing.
The case was assigned number 24-233 by the Supreme Court of Appeals, with the underlying circuit court case numbered CC-35-2009-C-278 in Ohio County. The respondent in the habeas proceedings was Shawn Straughn, identified as the Superintendent of Northern Correctional Center, where Woods is presumably incarcerated.
Habeas corpus petitions in capital and life sentence cases often raise claims related to ineffective assistance of counsel, prosecutorial misconduct, newly discovered evidence, or constitutional violations during the original proceedings. While the court's memorandum decision does not detail the specific arguments Woods raised in his petition, his request for a new trial suggests he alleged fundamental errors that he believed warranted overturning his convictions.
The memorandum decision format used by the court indicates that the justices viewed the case as not presenting novel legal questions or complex constitutional issues requiring extensive written analysis. Memorandum decisions are typically reserved for cases where the law is well-settled and the application to the facts is straightforward.
Woods' case represents one of many post-conviction challenges filed by inmates serving life sentences in West Virginia. The state's criminal justice system provides multiple avenues for challenging convictions, including direct appeals and habeas corpus proceedings, though success rates for such challenges are generally low.
The triple murder case appears to have involved a family unit, with the victims being a married couple and the wife's son from a previous relationship. The inclusion of robbery charges suggests the killings may have occurred during the commission of other crimes, which can be an aggravating factor in murder cases.
With the denial of his habeas petition, Woods has exhausted a significant avenue for challenging his convictions in state court. Inmates who lose state habeas proceedings may sometimes pursue federal habeas corpus relief, though such cases face additional procedural hurdles and time limitations.
The case file indicates extensive litigation spanning nearly two decades, from the original charges through multiple levels of appellate and post-conviction review. The Supreme Court of Appeals' decision represents the latest chapter in Woods' ongoing legal challenges to his incarceration.
The court's clerk, C. Casey Forbes, filed the decision on January 13, 2026, formally concluding this phase of Woods' post-conviction proceedings and affirming that his life sentences without parole remain in effect.