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Prosecutor Goes Underneath Her Robes: Verla Sue Holland and Attorney Tom O?Connell's Affair

It's not often that you get an unethical prosecutor and a judge in the same case.  Then again, we are talking about Texas: The question of whether a romantic relationship between a judge and prosecutor is unfair won?t be decided by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. ... The Court denied Hood the right to pursue his claim that he did not receive a fair trial because Judge Verla Sue Holland and then district attorney Tom O?Connell were romantically involved. In a criminal case, you can't raise new issues on appeal.  A "new" issue is one that you should have discovered through the use of reasonable diligence, and raised at trial.  The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals held that the inmate's lawyers should have been able to discover the affair between a judge and prosecutor...continue to full post

Full post as published by Crime & Federalism on September 16, 2009 (boomark / email).