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Appeal court denies Hood new trial
By Stephanie Flemmons, Staff Writer
Although a district attorney and judge admitted they were having an affair while trying a double murder case, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals decided their acts did not make the death sentence unfair.
In September 2008, Judge Verla Sue Holland and District Attorney Thomas O’Connell admitted under oath to engaging in an affair during Charles Dean Hood’s 1990 murder trial.
“This is appalling,” said David Dow, lead litigator for the Texas Defender Service. “The Court of Appeals suggested when it ruled against us over a year ago that we did not have first-hand statements. We identified tactics, took depositions and gave them the information and they said ‘too bad.’ They gave no reason why.”
Andrea Keilen, Texas Defender Service executive director, said the defense team is unsure whether they will ask the Supreme Court or a lower federal court to look at the case, but they will not give up with the CCA’s decision.
“We are still evaluating litigation options, but we will vigorously try this case since it’s such an outrageous violation of justice,” she said. “Today’s decision rewards the judge and prosecutor for maintaining a wall of silence about their affair for nearly two decades. Not until they were forced to testify under oath last year did the truth finally emerge. This decision by a court where eight of the nine judges once shared the bench with Judge Holland will only add to the perception that justice is skewed in Texas and that obvious and outrageous violations of the Constitution are acceptable in death penalty cases.”
Hood is currently on death row for the 1989 capital murder of Ronald Williamson and Tracie Lynn Wallace. Hood has escaped five executions for claims of judicial bias during his trial.
The review of this issue began June 3, 2008, when Matthew Goeller, assistant district attorney in Collin County from 1987 to 1996, filed an affidavit testifying that “it was common knowledge” that Holland and O’Connell “had a romantic relationship” for several years, including the time of Hood’s trial. Goeller’s affidavit marked the first time that a former employee of the DA’s office was willing to speak on the record and under oath about the relationship.
Hood was scheduled to be executed June 17, 2008, but it was called off because prison officials did not have enough time to administer a lethal injection before the midnight death warrant expired.
In November of 2008, Judge Greg Brewer of the 366th District Court of Collin County was directed by the CCA to make a recommendation on whether Hood’s claim of an unfair trial was raised in a timely manner. In May 2008, Brewer determined Hood should be able to raise judicial bias claims and the affair between the judge and the district attorney violated his right to a fair trial.
Court records state Brewer claimed Judge Holland and O’Connell took deliberate measures to ensure that their affair would remain secret, and they did not abide by their ethical and constitutional duties to disclose the fundamental conflict caused by their relationships.
Despite Brewer’s recommendation, CCA judges Kathy Cochran, Tom Price and Charles Holcomb filed a dissenting opinion stating Brewer’s recommendations are disregarded.
“No one would want to be prosecuted for a parking violation — let alone for capital murder — by a district attorney who is sleeping with the judge. Yet the Court of Criminal Appeals is unmoved,” said Greg Wiercioch, Texas Defender Service senior staff attorney. “We are outraged by this breakdown in the integrity of the justice system. We will continue to vigorously litigate this claim of judicial bias. Mr. Hood is entitled to a new trial before an impartial judge and a fair prosecutor.”
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