Ethics

I've been following the Charles Hood case, but hadn't been able to read the source documents. I tracked them down finally. You can find them here at the Texas Defender website. You will want to read the affidavits in the back of the filing.

In a nutshell, the testimony is that the prosecutor and judge were romantically involved and that dozens of local lawyers knew it and were afraid to reveal it over the years. According to the testimony, the local lawyers were terrified of calling the judge and prosecutor on their behavior. It was partly fear and partly the lack of definitive proof.

It's one thing to pretend the rumors don't exist if you're appearing before the judge on a small matter on a law and motion calendar. But for the entire legal community to ignore it in a capital defense case with a death verdict is an appalling story. There will also be hard questions for Hood's defense team, which concedes that they were aware of the rumor back at the time of the trial.

And if the prosecutors' office that was pushing for execution this week includes lawyers who knew of the romantic relationship, they ought to be disciplined. If the testimony holds up, the behavior of the judge and prosecutor may even have committed criminal acts.

These aren't allegations; these are claims supported by testimony -- albeit largely second-hand testimony. At the same time, I must stress that we haven't heard the testimony from the accused judge or prosecutor, and we'll want to hear that. (Will they say that they had an intense friendship but nothing romantic? Will they deny any relationship at all?)

But if the affidavits are supported, we will need to do a serious study of the social psychology that caused this travesty.