Hearing Scheduled on Affair between Prosecutor and Judge in Texas Death Penalty Case

UPDATE: CHARLES HOOD'S EXECUTION HAS BEEN STAYED BY THE TEXAS COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEALS.  A Texas state judge has ordered a hearing into the accusation of an affair between the judge and the prosecutor in Charles Hood’s death penalty case. With a week to go before Hood’s execution date, the Texas Attorney General also called for a review of the fairness of the trial. The Attorney General, Greg Abbott, requested that the district court “thoroughly review the defendant’s claims before the execution proceeds [to] protect the integrity of the Texas legal system.” He added, “The impartiality of a defendant’s trial and conviction must be beyond reproach.

Thus, before the state carries out the ultimate, irreversible punishment, the appropriate trial court should thoroughly review this matter.” The latest motion seeking an investigation had landed in Judge Robert T. Dry’s court, who set a hearing date two days after the scheduled execution. In his opinion, “You are exploring a civil lawsuit for the estate of Mr. Hood.” He acknowledged that he knew the judge and prosecutor very well, but then suddenly recused himself on September 3rd when he revealed that he had also been close friends and business partners with the judge’s former husband. The case is now scheduled for a hearing on September 8th, before the scheduled execution, under Judge Greg Brewer. The hearing will be held to decide if the judge and prosecutor will be required to testify.

(J. McKinley, Jr., “As Texas execution nears, hearing is set on claim judge and prosecutor had affair,” New York Times, September 5, 2008). See Representation and Arbitrariness.