Bost . . . Texas Legal
Grits for Breakfast has been tirelessly following the story of Charles Hood, convicted of rape and murder, and whose defense attorneys have uncovered allegations that the prosecutor at Hood's trial and the judge at Hood's trial had sexual relations during his trial. It's like an episode of Boston Legal, except its not, Alan Shore did not get the inevitable not guilty, and they intend to execute Hood without allowing further investigation into the alleged misconduct or an evidentiary hearing.
According to the Houston Chronicle:
Retired Judge Verla Sue Holland and then-Collin County District Attorney Tom O'Connell have declined to address the allegations. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the state's highest criminal court and where Holland was a judge in the mid-1990s, rejected Hood's efforts to appeal on the grounds of the alleged relationship, citing procedural reasons for the rejection but not addressing the merits of the accusations.
There should not be any doubt that an allegation of this nature calls the results of Hood's trial into question, and any standard of fairness should dictate that a new trial is necessary. I hope that Grits and the media out there continue their efforts to bring this mess into the light of day and keep it there.
