"Latest tale of Texas justice rated E for embarrassment," was the Austin American-Statesman's Friday editorial.
Thanks to the Charles Dean Hood capital murder case, the Texas judicial system these days looks more like a Lifetime cable channel movie about the secret lives of people who wear dark suits and black robes — with a lot of leg showing — than a solemn institution trying to determine, fairly and objectively, guilt for a terrible crime.
As Texans learned this week, the state district judge in Hood's 1990 trial at which he was found guilty and sentenced to die, Verla Sue Holland, was personally involved with his prosecutor, Tom O'Connell, who at the time was district attorney of Collin County.
And:
The Court of Criminal Appeals on Tuesday suddenly stepped in to stop the execution, but not because of the Holland-O'Connell relationship. Instead, the court said, it wanted to reconsider whether the Hood jury had gotten proper instructions during the sentencing phase of his original trial, an issue the court had rejected previously.
This latest action by the Court of Criminal Appeals looks like an attempt to get this fiasco of justice out of the headlines while holding a fig leaf up for one of its former members and the court itself. This court probably isn't embarrassed, but it should be.
Dallas Morning News columnist Steve Blow wrote, "In affairs, some take pleasure in taking risks," for the Sunday paper.
Mr. Hood was convicted of a double murder in Plano. Now he's asking for a new trial because the prosecutor and the judge in his case were secret lovers.
They admitted it in court-ordered depositions last week.
Former Collin County District Attorney Tom O'Connell and former state District Judge Verla Sue Holland differed only in when their romance ended.
But whether it continued during Mr. Hood's trial in 1990 or not, experts say the love affair was a major breach of legal and judicial ethics.
For now, Mr. Hood has received a stay in his execution while an appeals court considers another matter in his case. But the sexual relationship is certain to have wider impact than just his case.
"I think even as we speak, defendants and defense attorneys are looking back through their files," said Southern Methodist University law professor Fred Moss. "You are going to see motions to reopen cases."
The biggest question seems to be whether the romance will affect only the few cases Mr. O'Connell personally prosecuted, like Mr. Hood's, or the hundreds more handled by his assistants.
Mr. Moss said the argument could certainly be made that Judge Holland had an interest in seeing her lover's entire office succeed, not just his own cases.
Personally, I'm less intrigued by the legal questions than I am by the age-old mystery:
Why do people do it?
"Outrage at Courthouse affair," is the ABC News web report by Scott Michaels.
It was unclear what the immediate impact of the affair would be for Hood or others, but lawyers expected that some other defendants who have been convicted in Holland's courtroom would attempt to challenge their convictions because of the reported affair.
"If I were a defense lawyer in a case over which this judge presided, I would be raising this. I think it's going to open the floodgates," said David Zarfes, an associate dean at the University of Chicago Law School who writes about legal ethics. "I find it shocking and disturbing. A man's life weighs in the balance here."
The letter from Hood's attorneys said the judge, Verla Sue Holland, who is now retired, and former Collin County District Attorney Tom O'Connell had differing recollections about when the affair ended and it was unclear if they were involved during Hood's trial. A former district attorney has said in a sworn statement that he believed the affair continued until 1993.
The parties are still under a gag order in the case, and lawyers for Holland and O'Connell did not return calls from ABC News.
It was unclear if Hood will be granted a new trial because of the affair. The Court of Criminal Appeals stayed Hood's execution, saying the jury may have received improper jury instructions.
It rejected Hood's appeal for a new trial based on the alleged affair, but Holland and O'Connell did not admit to the affair until after Hood's appeal had been filed.
Several legal experts have told ABC News that a sexual relationship between a judge and prosecutor under these circumstances would violate a defendant's right to a fair trial and would render the conviction invalid.
If that is found to be the case, the reported affair could call into question many other cases that O'Connell prosecuted in Holland's court. Holland was a Collin County judge from 1981 to 1997, when she joined the Court of Criminal Appeals. O'Connell was district attorney from 1971 to 2002, except for several years in the 1980s.
"It's not just shocking. It really reflects a complete disregard of the fundamental tenets of the justice system," Robert Cummins, the former chair of the American Bar Association Committee on Professional Discipline, said of the affair. Cummins earlier had signed a letter asking courts to fully investigate the allegations that Holland and O'Connell had an affair.
It was unclear how many cases could potentially be affected. The Collin County court clerk's office said it was still researching the number of cases O'Connell prosecuted in Holland's court during that time.
Earlier coverage begins with this post.
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