Hood Spared Death ... For Now

By TChris, Section Death Penalty
Posted on Wed Jun 18, 2008 at 11:01:59 PM EST
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You wouldn't have wanted to be Charles Dean Hood last night.

Hood waited in a holding cell adjacent to the death chamber in Huntsville for hours while lawyers with the Collin County district attorney's office sought his execution and Hood's lawyers tried to prevent the death sentence from being carried out.

You'll remember Hood is the defendant who was sentenced to death by the judge who was allegedly having an affair with the district attorney who prosecuted Hood's case. The death warrant was recalled after Hood raised the issue, only to be reinstated by the state's highest court. But the wrangling lasted so long that the warrant expired before Hood could be executed.

"Only in Texas," said Lawrence Fox, who teaches law at Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania.

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Hood Spared Death ... For Now | 3 comments (3 topical)

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And how was this not an absolute (none / 0) (#1)
by befuddledvoter on Thu Jun 19, 2008 at 07:41:15 AM EST

conflict of interest?? And, If common knowledge, as one prosecutor asserted, did the defense attorney know?? Did he waive the conflict, if one could even do so?

The whole case should be reversed and remanded for new trial.

"remanded for new trial? (none / 0) (#2)
by diogenes on Thu Jun 19, 2008 at 07:46:36 AM EST

If a jury convicted Hood and an appeals court did not overturn the guilt phase of the trial on the basis of some misapplied procedure, then the guilty verdict should stand and he should simply have a new penalty phase in front of a new judge.

: You have a misunderstanding of the judge's role (none / 0) (#3)
by txpublicdefender on Thu Jun 19, 2008 at 03:53:36 PM EST

The judge hearing the case was sleeping with the prosecutor. That judge makes all sorts of rulings during the trial on evidentiary issues and the like. The judge has nothing more to do with sentencing than with the guilt/innocence phase of the trial. All she did was make rulings on objections and instruct the jury as to the law. The same jury that convicted him decided that he should be sentenced to death. All the judge did is formally pronounce the sentence.
The idea that a trial could have been fair--even if you cannot point to a single ruling that was clearly in error--in a case where the judge was having sex with the prosecutor is ludicrous (not that this wasn't also going on, in an "open secret" type of way in the Texas county I practiced in as well). Many rulings are discretionary and can only be overturned if they are "an abuse of discretion," which is a pretty high standard. By definition, the trial this man had lacked due process.