Charles Hood's case came to a near-boil in June when his June 17 scheduled execution was halted because the death warrant expired before TDCJ could carry out the lethal injunction. It was the end of a night of frantic legal action.
Today, Steven Kreytak reports, "Death row inmate's lawyers want depositions from judge, prosecutor," on the Austin American-Statesman's Austin Legal blog.
Lawyers for Texas death row inmate Charles Dean Hood, scheduled for execution Sept. 10 despite allegations that the trial judge and prosecutor at his 1990 trial were involved in a secret intimate relationship, hope to secure direct evidence of the affair in a civil rights lawsuit.
Hood’s lawyers said today that they will file a petition in a Collin County court at law asking to take the depositions of former state District Judge Vera Sue Holland and former Collin County District Attorney Tom O’Connell, who have refused to answer questions about any relationship they had in 1990.
Hood’s lawyers claim their relationship violated Hood’s right to a fair and impartial trial and have asked for a new trial.
The petition can be found here.
It is based on rule 202 of the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure, which allow oral or written depositions to be taken before a lawsuit is filed to investigate possible claims.
Under those rules, the court must order a deposition allowed if it finds that allowing the deposition would prevent a failure or delay of justice in an anticipated suit or the likely benefit of allowing the deposition to investigate a potential claim outweighs the burden or expense of the deposition.
AP has, "Inmate's lawyers want to depose ex-judge and D.A.," via the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Hood's attorneys contend the alleged relationship between Judge Verla Sue Holland, the judge who presided over Hood's capital murder trial in 1990, and the prosecutor, former Collin County District Attorney Tom O'Connell, tainted the trial.
The now-retired Holland, who in the mid-1990s served as a judge on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, and O'Connell, now in private practice, have declined to address the allegations.
"Their strategy of silence is understandable," Hood's lawyers, Gregory Wiercioch and A. Richard Ellis, wrote in a petition asking the Collin County Court at Law to order the meeting. "Proof of an undisclosed intimate relationship could not only result in civil liability, it could also taint the validity of numerous judgments, convictions and sentences in Collin County."
As his scheduled June execution neared, the Court of Criminal Appeals 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.
Hood's lawyers asked for a hearing on their request, which seeks to depose Holland and O'Connell. The request also seeks letters, cards and gifts they may have exchanged, receipts for any gifts, photos and videos of them together, and e-mails and text messages the two may have sent related to the allegations.
Earlier coverage of the case begins with this post. Posts from the evening of June 17 are here, here, here, and here.
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