Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Criminal Law Blogs -> Sentencing Law and Policy

Criminal Law

: Sentencing Law and Policy

Capital punishment, a love story?!?

By Douglas A. Berman

A remarkable love story is emerging just before a scheduled execution, as reported here in the Austin American-Statesman: The capital murder conviction of Charles Dean Hood, who is set to be executed Tuesday, should be overturned because the judge at his 1990 trial was secretly dating the district attorney, an appeal filed Thursday alleged. Judge Verla Sue Holland, now retired, could not have provided Hood with a fair and impartial trial while involved in a long-term intimate relationship with then-Collin County District Attorney Tom O'Connell, the appeal said.  O'Connell played an active role in prosecuting Hood for the double murder that put him on death row. "The wall of silence that has long protected Judge Holland must now come down," the appeal said...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on June 13, 2008 (boomark / email).