Ethics

Texas threw out the death penalty in the Charles Hood case due to a faulty jury instruction -- and not because of the intimate relationship between the judge and prosecutor.  I wonder if my initial reaction was too cynical: this Texas panel ruled that way to protect the state's judiciary from the embarrassment that would ensue if the US Supremes got ahold of the issue of judicial bias.  

UPDATE: As I understand it, Hood's lawyers take the position that the new ruling, which deals with the death penalty phase, does not negate Hood's argument that the merits trial was infected by a conflict (because the judge and prosecutor were in, or had just finished, an intimate personal relationship).