New Hearing in Texas Death Row Case

by Matt Kelley · 2008-11-20 05:00:00 UTC
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Charles Dean Hood came within hours of execution in Texas twice this summer before officials delayed his execution. In recent months, his attorneys have presented evidence that the prosecutor and judge in Hood's original trial were having an affair, casting just a little bit of doubt on the fairness of his trial.

Yesterday, the state's highest criminal court sent the case back down to lower courts for further review. And the justices asked Hood's lawyers to explain why they waited 18 years before presenting information about the alleged affair. The answer to that seems easy, it was a rumor for 18 years and finally became public knowledge just recently.

"What they're saying is if there was foot dragging, we shouldn't even have to consider this," Lawrence Fox, the former chairman of the American Bar Association's ethics and professional responsibility committee, said Wednesday.

"What were they supposed to do? ... Go into court and say we've heard a rumor? You just don't do that. If you're going to go after a judge, you better have more than that or you're going to have your head handed to you. ... You can't punish the victim for not uncovering what somebody was hiding."

Matt Kelley is the Online Communications Manager at the Innocence Project and a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. Follow him on Twitter @mattjkelley.
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