Supreme Court turns down appeal of Texas convict in case dogged by DA-judge affair

Court denies Texan’s appeal over DA-judge affair

HOUSTON — The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday left in place the conviction of a man sent to Texas death row despite the admission of an affair between his trial judge and the prosecutor.

The justices did not comment in turning down Charles Dean Hood’s appeal. The decision does not change a ruling earlier this year from a Texas appeals court that ordered a new punishment trial for Hood on a legal point unrelated to the affair.

In his Supreme Court appeal, Hood sought an entirely new trial based on the once-secret romantic relationship between the trial judge, Verla Sue Holland, and Tom O’Connell, the former district attorney in Collin County.

Hood, 41, a former topless club bouncer, has insisted he is innocent in the 1989 fatal shootings of Tracie Lynn Wallace, 26, and her boyfriend, Ronald Williamson, 46, at their home in Plano.

“We are disheartened that the United States Supreme Court ruled not to hear the case of Charles Hood in which the trial judge and district attorney who prosecuted Hood engaged in a secret, long-term, extramarital affair,” said Andrea Keilen, director of the Texas Defender Service, a legal group representing Hood. “This is particularly disappointing given that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to date has ignored this obvious and outrageous constitutional violation.

“No one should be prosecuted for a parking ticket let alone for capital murder by the district attorney who has had a sexual affair with the judge handling the case and despite the Court’s decision today, we will continue to zealously represent Mr. Hood as we believe his case was marred by a fundamental injustice.”

John Rolater, chief of the appellate division of the Collin County prosecutor’s office, declined to comment on the ruling.

In a separate appeal, the Court of Criminal Appeals, Texas’ highest criminal court, said in February that Hood was entitled to a new punishment trial because jurors were not allowed to properly consider mitigating evidence that could have convinced them he didn’t deserve a death sentence.

The ruling made no mention of the affair between Holland and the prosecutor in Collin County in suburban Dallas. Last year, the same court refused Hood’s appeal for an entirely new trial because of the affair admission.

A day before he was scheduled to die in September 2008, the court gave Hood a reprieve based on the faulty jury instruction claim.

O’Connell was the county’s elected prosecutor from 1971-82 and 1987-2002. Holland was a state district judge from 1981-96 before moving on to the Court of Criminal Appeals, where she served before resigning in 2001.

Hood was convicted in 1990. He was arrested in Indiana while driving Williamson’s $70,000 Cadillac, and his fingerprints were discovered at the murder scene. Hood said he had permission to drive the car and his fingerprints were at the house because he had been living there and doing odd jobs for Williamson.

Neither Holland nor O’Connell has been publicly disciplined by the State Commission on Judicial Conduct or the State Bar of Texas.

Their relationship apparently was an open secret in Collin County legal circles. In an affidavit related to the Hood case, a former assistant district attorney said it was common knowledge. In the legal wrangling to block Hood’s execution, the former couple acknowledged under oath they had an intimate relationship.