A South Carolina inmate sentenced for killing a state trooper cannot be executed due to the effects of schizophrenia, which makes him think he’s immortal, a judge ruled April 22.

Judge Gracie Knie upheld John Richard Wood’s lawyers’ claims that the effects of his mental illness prohibit him from being executed, according to Spectrum Local News. Wood thinks he’s immortal, has already “died three times on death row” and will be resurrected again if he’s put to death, Knie said, citing testimony from mental health professionals given during a two-day March hearing. A jury convicted Wood of murdering South Carolina State Highway Patrol Trooper Eric Nicholson in 2000.

Wood received a schizophrenia diagnosis while in a state prison’s psychiatric hospital, according to the South Carolina Daily Gazette. His attorneys said that during his time in the hospital he had delusions about himself and his case. Wood believed he was a U.S. Army Ranger and a 300-year immortal and claimed he would soon be a free man, staff notes presented by his lawyers said.

Wood was found guilty of murder of a Highway Patrol officer and possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime in the 2000 death of Nicholson, according to online court documents. Nicholson was patrolling I-85 in Greenville when he informed his dispatcher that he was going to stop a moped and activated his lights and sirens.

Wood, the rider, did not immediately stop the moped, and two troopers who had heard Nicholson scream over his radio discovered Nicholson had been shot five times upon responding to the scene, according to the court records. Witnesses to the incident said they saw a weapon in Wood’s hand. Wood fled the scene of the incident and headed into a nearby parking lot where he ditched his moped for a Jeep driven by a woman, the documents read.

Concerned citizens who had chased the since-convicted perpetrator called police and provided the Jeep’s tag number. Wood was sentenced to death in connection with the incident.

While Wood understands why he received the death sentence, he mistakenly thinks law enforcement officers were “trying to frame him for a brutal rape,” Spectrum Local News reported, citing expert testimony. Wood also reportedly believes now-Chief Justice John Kittredge, the judge who presided over his 2002 trial, and courtroom staff were in the service of “Beloved Kevin Rudolph,” a deity that is part of a battle to rule the planet. (RELATED: REPORT: Man Allegedly Bites Own Infant Son, Claims Family Wants To Kill Him)

Dr. Amanda Salas, a psychiatrist for the defense, reacted to Wood’s condition, according to the outlet.

“The more I talk, the more crazy I feel in saying these things,” Salas said. “None of it makes sense, and that’s just the persistence and the well-developed nature of his delusional systems.”

Susan Knight, a defense team psychologist and Dr. Matthew Gaskins, a state psychiatrist, were also experts in the hearing. They evaluated Wood and said it was extremely difficult to speak rationally with him due to his illness.

Wood is the first South Carolina inmate deemed not competent for execution since September 2024, when the state resumed capital punishment, according to Spectrum Local News. The state paused executions for 13 years partly due to lack of access to lethal injection drugs.