Expert Slams Court's 'Blame the Victim' Response to Judge-Prosecutor Affair
An appeals court in Texas has ordered attorneys for an inmate facing the death penalty to explain why they didn’t complain sooner about a now-admitted affair between the judge and the prosecutor in the case, sparking an angry response from an incredulous legal ethics expert
News that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has ordered a hearing to determined whether appellate attorneys representing Charles Dean Hood violated the doctrine of laches by not acting quickly enough to pursue rumors of the then-alleged long-ago affair brought blistering comments from Lawrence Fox. A Philadelphia lawyer, he formerly served as chair of the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility.
Although the prosecutor and judge in Hood’s case had “absolute ethical obligations” to disclose their romance, they didn’t do so, Fox tells the Associated Press. Meanwhile, Hood’s lawyers couldn’t go into court and bring up the rumor of the affair, he says, based simply on rumors.
“You can’t punish the victim for not uncovering what somebody was hiding,” he contends, but “now the court is saying: One of our judges screwed up badly, never disclosed this, so let’s blame the victim.”
As discussed in earlier ABAJournal.com posts, Hood was seemingly within minutes of being put to death earlier this year, before his executioners ran out of time. At that point, the judge and prosecutor hadn’t disclosed their romance, but they later did so in court-ordered depositions.
Earlier ABAJournal.com coverage:
“Prosecutor and Judge in Capital Case Admitted Affair, Lawyers Say”
“Depositions Ordered re Alleged Long-Ago Affair Between Judge & Prosecutor”
“First the Execution, then the Hearing; Ex-Judges, Prosecutors Criticize Schedule”
“Texas Judge Halts Planned 6 PM Execution, Appeals Court Overrules, Clock Ticks”
