No new trial for death row inmate Hood

SHAME !!!!!
By Chuck Lindell | Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Death row inmate Charles Dean Hood is not entitled to a new trial 
despite proving that his judge and prosecutor were having an affair 
during his 1990 trial, the state’s highest court ruled Wednesday.

In a 6-3 ruling, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals refused to 
consider Hood’s appeal, saying details of the affair were not 
properly raised by his lawyers.

State law gives death row inmates one appeal known as a petition for 
a writ of habeas corpus. Subsequent filings, such as the petition 
Hood’s lawyers filed last year, cannot be considered unless they 
contain facts that were not available to lawyers exercising 
“reasonable diligence” in the earlier appeal.

Hood’s lawyers failed to meet that standard, the court’s unsigned 
opinion stated without elaboration.

Three judges — Cathy Cochran, Charles Holcomb and Tom Price — 
dissented, saying they would have sent Hood’s appeal to a lower court 
to explore the merits of his claim.

Wednesday’s ruling contradicted findings by state District Judge Greg 
Brewer of Collin County.

Brewer, assigned by the Court of Criminal Appeals to review the 
latest appeal, determined that Hood’s lawyers demonstrated 
“extraordinary” diligence in confirming rumors that then-District 
Judge Verla Sue Holland and Thomas O’Connell Jr., the former district 
attorney of Collin County, had been having a sexual relationship 
before and during Hood’s trial.

The judge and prosecutor strove to keep the affair secret, Brewer 
said, revealing the relationship only when forced to testify under 
oath in 2008.