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Jun 13, 2008 11:26 am US/Central
Lawyers Base Execution Appeal On Rumors Of Affair
AUSTIN (AP) ―
Lawyers for a convicted killer facing execution next week have filed an appeal asking the punishment be stopped, alleging a prosecutor at his trial and the presiding judge were engaged in a secret romantic relationship that violated legal ethics.
Charles Dean Hood is set for lethal injection Tuesday for a double slaying in Plano 19 years ago. In an appeal filed Thursday with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and in the trial court in Collin County, Hood's lawyers said his conviction and death sentence should be voided.
They accused now retired Judge Verla Sue Holland of being involved "in a long-term intimate relationship with the Collin County District Attorney, Tom O'Connell, who took an active role in the courtroom prosecuting Mr. Hood."
Neither Holland nor O'Connell, now in private practice, returned telephone calls left for them by The Associated Press.
"Judge Holland was absolutely disqualified from presiding over the trial," according to the appeal filed by two California-based lawyers, A. Richard Ellis and Gregory Wiercioch. "Because the court lacked jurisdiction, the judgment of conviction and sentence against Mr. Hood is null and void."
The accusations first surfaced three years ago in a story at Salon.com, an Internet news site.
In an affidavit dated June 3 accompanying the appeal, a former assistant district attorney, Matthew Goeller, who was not involved in the Hood case, said it was "common knowledge" that the judge and prosecutor "had a romantic relationship" from at least 1987, when he joined the district attorney's office, until about 1993. Hood was tried in 1990.
In another affidavit, David Haynes, one of Hood's defense attorneys at the trial, said he was aware of "rumors concerning a romantic relationship."
"As this was only a rumor, I had no way of verifying its truth or accuracy and therefore I had no valid basis upon which to file either a motion to recuse Judge Holland or a motion to disqualify the district attorney's office," Haynes said.
Hood, 38, was condemned for fatally shooting a Plano couple, Ronald Williamson, 46, and Tracie Lynn Wallace, 26, at Williamson's home, then stealing money and other items before taking his victim's car and fleeing to Indiana, where he was arrested. Hood was working for Williamson and also living at the house at the time of the shootings.
(© 2008 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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