Supreme Court Refuses Appeal Alleging Prosecutor-Judge Affair Marred Murder Trial
The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to hear the appeal of a convicted murderer who claims his right to a fair trial was violated because the prosecutor and the judge were having an affair.
Charles Dean Hood sought a new trial because of the formerly secret affair between Judge Verla Sue Holland and the district attorney, Thomas O’Connell Jr., according to stories by the Associated Press and Bloomberg.
Hood was convicted in 1990 in the shooting deaths of his boss and his boss’s girlfriend, according to Bloomberg. Texas’ highest court granted Hood a new sentencing hearing in February because jurors did not hear mitigating evidence. The court did not address the affair. Hood maintains he is innocent.
Hood’s lawyers issued a statement saying they were “disheartened” by the Supreme Court’s refusal to hear the case. “This is particularly disappointing given that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to date has ignored this obvious and outrageous constitutional violation,” the statement says.
“Dozens of former state and federal prosecutors and judges and the nation’s leading legal ethicists have criticized the handling of this case by the Texas death penalty system. No one should be prosecuted for a parking ticket let alone for capital murder by the district attorney who has had a sexual affair with the judge handling the case,” the statement says.
