Andrea Keilen, the Executive Director of Texas Defender Service, issued the following statement on the CCA's ruling in Ex Parte Hood, overturning Hood's Death Sentence.
"While today’s decision recognized a clear flaw in the punishment phase of Mr. Hood’s case, it should not distract the courts or the public from the more troubling issue at the center of this case: that the judge and prosecutor admitted under oath that they had a long-term, intimate sexual relationship prior to Mr. Hood’s trial, and that they intentionally kept this affair hidden for 20 years. We, and dozens of legal ethicists and former judges and prosecutors, including former Texas Governor Mark White, former FBI Director William Sessions, and former Texas prosecutor Sam Millsap, are urging the U.S. Supreme Court to repair the damage the affair has caused and restore integrity to the Texas criminal justice system. This case requires Supreme Court intervention because the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to date has ignored this obvious and outrageous constitutional violation. Mr. Hood is entitled to an entirely new trial before an impartial judge and prosecutor. Today’s decision granting him a new punishment phase hearing does nothing to address or correct this egregious legal and ethical violation."
Earlier coverage begins with this post; all coverage, available through the Charles Dean Hood index.
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