The 5th U.S. Court of Appeals has blocked ex star of gay porn Brandon Dale Woodruff‘s latest appeal of his conviction for the double-murder of his parents in East Texas in 2005.
Woodruff, who has spent 13 years behind bars for parricide and is the subject of the book Railroaded and the documentary Texas Justice: Brandon Woodruff, has always maintained his innocence.
He and his supporters claim homophobia blinded investigators, prosecutors, the judge and the jury, preventing a fair trial.
Prosecutors theorized that Woodruff, who had not publicly come out yet when arrested, was capable of lying about murdering his parents because he hid his sexual orientation from most people and led a secret life that included gay disco dancing and appearing in a couple of gay porn films produced by a Florida filmmaker. They also made much of his failing grades at Abilene Christian University where he was a 19-year-old freshman and of his high credit card debt as motivation for the murders.
The federal appeals court ruled Sept. 20 that Woodruff, who is serving a life sentence with no parole in the Hughes Unit of the Texas Department of Corrections, would not be eligible to appeal a devastating ruling before his trial. He previously was also denied a writ by the U.S. Northern District Court of Texas.
