Sept. 25 TEXAS: Death row inmate's lawyers request new trial, citing romance between judge and prosecutor As expected, attorneys for death row inmate Charles Dean Hood filed a petition today seeking a new trial for the condemned killer, claiming his original trial was unfair because of the recently revealed romantic relationship between Judge Verla Sue Holland, who presided, and then District Attorney Tom O'Connell, who prosecuted the case. The petition also castigated the current district attorney, his "minions," and the state attorney general for their actions in the case, which has been bouncing through criminal and civil courts since Mr. Hoods execution was called off at the eleventh hour in June. "The wall of silence that has long surrounded Judge Holland and Mr. OConnell has finally come crashing down," the filing said, referring to recent depositions in which Judge Holland and Mr. O'Connell confirmed their romantic involvement. "A fair and impartial tribunal is a bedrock requirement of due process." Mr. Hood, who was convicted for the 1989 killing in Plano of Tracie Lynn Wallace and Ronald Williamson, deserves a new trial because "Judge Holland created an appearance of impropriety and an impression of possible bias," the defense wrote. Mr. Hoods attorneys were not available for comment. According to the filing, Judge Holland, whose attorney also could not be reached for comment, said in depositions that it was "absolutely not" improper for her to preside over the case. She reportedly told attorneys the romantic relationship began in 1982 and ended in 1987, several years before Mr. Hood's 1990 trial. Mr. O'Connell recollected that it started in 1984 or 1985 and did not end until 1991 or 1992. The depositions reportedly said both parties professed their love for each other at the time. According to the petition, Mr. O'Connell said Judge Holland had talked about getting married, but Judge Holland denied that. Both parties said they kept the relationship secret. "Their sexual encounters took place at each other's homes when their spouses were away," the filing says. The 2 apparently remained good friends even as the romance dwindled. As late as 1991, the pair went on a trip to Santa Fe together, and Mr. O'Connell attended Judge Holland's family reunion in Missouri that same year. John Rolater, assistant district attorney for Collin County, declined to comment on the petition, citing pending litigation. The filing takes his office, which fought to keep the depositions from being taken, to task, saying, "Their actions have been marked by overzealousness that calls into question their adherence to their duty 'that justice shall be done.'" Mr. Rolater again declined to respond, saying, "Matters like this should be resolved in the court, not in sound bites." The petition also questioned the conduct of state Attorney General Greg Abbot, despite the fact that his office filed a "friend of the court" brief calling for an investigation into the relationship a few days before Mr. Hood's last execution date. The state's top lawyer criticized the defense at the time for raising the claim after 18 years of litigation. "The attorney general's cake-and-eat-it desires to restore the publics faith in judiciary while castigating Mr. Hood's attorneys for not coming forward earlier with credible, compelling evidence of this furtive relationship raise serious questions about his commitments to justice in this case." The attorney general's office did not return a call for comment. (source: Dallas Morning News) ************************ New trial sought for killer in affair case Lawyers for a death row inmate whose execution was blocked after allegations that his trial judge and prosecutor were having an affair asked Texas' highest criminal court Thursday to grant him a new trial. "The truth was deliberately concealed in this case for nearly 20 years," attorneys A. Richard Ellis and Greg Wiercioch said in their request to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on behalf of Charles Dean Hood. Hood won a reprieve from the court Sept. 9, a day before his scheduled lethal injection, but not because of the secret romantic relationship between his now-retired trial judge, Verla Sue Holland, and Tom O'Connell, the former district attorney in Collin County in suburban Dallas. Instead, the Austin-based appeals court where Holland served as a judge in the late 1990s said it wanted to reconsider whether the jury instructions at Hood's 1990 trial were flawed. A ruling favorable to Hood could result in a new sentencing proceeding but not necessarily a complete new trial. As Hood's execution neared, his lawyers alleged his trial was tainted by the unethical and improper relationship and won a court order forcing Holland and O'Connell to be questioned under oath. In depositions, the pair acknowledged they'd had a years-long affair. "This revelation casts a deep shadow over justice in this case," Hood's attorneys said in their application for a new trial. "The wall of silence that has long surrounded Judge Holland and Mr. O'Connell has finally come crashing down." The affair, they said, meant Hood's state and federal constitutional rights to an impartial trial were violated. Attorneys for Holland and O'Connell have declined to discuss the' depositions, citing a gag order. Neither the judge nor the former prosecutor has been publicly disciplined by the State Commission on Judicial Conduct or the State Bar of Texas. Laura Burstein, a spokeswoman for Hood's lawyers, said Thursday the attorneys would "let the petition speak for itself." Hood, 39, is a former bouncer at a topless club who was 20 when he was arrested in Indiana for the fatal shootings of Tracie Lynn Wallace, 26, an ex-dancer, and her boyfriend, Ronald Williamson, 46, at Williamson's home in Plano in 1989. Hood has maintained his innocence. He was driving Williamson's $70,000 Cadillac at the time of his arrest. Evidence against him included his fingerprints at the murder scene. Hood has said he had permission to drive the car and his fingerprints were at the house because he had been living there. The affair, an apparent open secret 20 years ago in Collin County legal circles, gained traction in June when a former assistant district attorney filed an affidavit saying it was "common knowledge" from at least 1987 until about 1993. The time includes Hood's trial. In their depositions, according to the filing Thursday, Holland said the romance began in 1982 and ended in 1987. O'Connell's account said the romance began in 1984 or 1985, continued until mid 1989 and may have continued beyond then. The filing said the 2 discussed the possibility of marriage, remained good friends and continued seeing each other as recently as 1992. "That a judge charged with avoiding the appearance of bias and a prosecutor tasked with doing justice would allow their desire for secrecy to trump their sworn constitutional duties is a stunning display of arrogance and the corrupting influence of power," Hood's lawyers said in their request for a new trial. "There is no dispute that Judge Holland and Mr. O'Connell were engaged in a long-term, intimate sexual relationship prior to Mr. Hood's trial and did not disclose that fact to Mr. Hood or his counsel. ... The damage to Mr. Hood's constitutional right to a fair and impartial tribunal is obvious and egregious." The attorneys said as an alternative to a new trial, the appeals court should send the case back to the trial court for additional proceedings and "grant any other relief that law and justice require." O'Connell was the county's elected district attorney from 1971-82 and from 1987-2002. Holland was a state district judge from 1974-96 before moving on to the Court of Criminal Appeals from 1997-2002. (source: Associated Press) VIRGINIA: Federal judge rejects condemned D.C. sniper's appeal A federal judge has rejected an appeal from convicted sniper John Allen Muhammad, who was sentenced to death for masterminding a 2002 killing spree in the Washington, D.C., area that left 10 people dead. Muhammad, now on death row in Virginia, alleged numerous errors at his 2003 trial. But U.S. District Judge Liam O'Grady in Alexandria, Va., on Wednesday rejected all of Muhammad's claims challenging his conviction and sentence. Muhammad's appellate lawyers argued that Muhammad should not have been allowed to serve as his own lawyer for part of the trial because of mental illness. They also argued that the judge should have allowed testimony about Muhammad's difficult childhood. Muhammad can still appeal to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond. (source: Associated Press) OKLAHOMA----impending execution Execution of Jessie James Cummings set for tonight Cummings, 52, is scheduled to die by lethal injection tonight at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary for the September 1991 stabbing death of his 11-year-old niece. The girl's skeletal remains were found a month later, dumped from a bridge in rural Choctaw County. The case remained unsolved until 1994 when one of Cummings' 2 wives spoke to investigators. Cummings, who has been described as a cruel, cold, controlling man, was married to two women at once and had children with the both women at the same time. Investigators say Cummings convinced the wives to kill his sister, Judy Moody Mayo, while he was in Oklahoma City for the day. When Cummings returned, he helped the women dispose of Mayo's body in a farm pond near Atoka Lake, investigators said. After molesting his niece, he took her to a rural Choctaw County area and stabbed her. Cummings was initially convicted in both deaths, but his conviction in his sister's death was thrown out by the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals in 1998. For McCool, Cummings' death will be justice for his victims. "As adults we sometimes put ourselves in places where we know harm could come to us, but children do not know of this fear but only trust the adults they are with," McCool said. McCool and OSBI Agent Reanae Childers will be among the witnesses at Cummings's execution. "It's the last thing we can do for Melissa," Childers said. Cummings has maintained his innocence through numerous appeals and requests to higher courts to look at his case. During his clemency hearing in August, he continued to protest his conviction and declare his innocence. "The truth will come out," Cummings said during his clemency hearing. Cummings has no pending appeals, despite protests from international anti-death penalty groups. (source: The Oklahoman) MARYLAND: Capital punishment, fatally flawed----Our view: Maryland's death penalty should be replaced by life without parole In a democracy, there can be no greater miscarriage of justice than the execution of an innocent person. Yet this week, the state of Georgia came frighteningly close to that possibility in the case of Troy A. Davis, a death row inmate awaiting execution for the 1989 killing of a Savannah police officer. His conviction was based almost entirely on the statements of 9 purported eyewitnesses, 7 of whom later recanted their testimony. Mr. Davis was only hours from execution when the U.S. Supreme Court granted a temporary stay. By coincidence, the court's action came on the same day Maryland's death penalty commission held its final public hearing. The panel listened as experts testified that the state's death penalty is deeply flawed. Among those testifying was lawyer Patrick Kent, chief of the forensics unit in the state public defender's office, who said even the best crime-solving science is fallible: "The only way we can say we are not executing the innocent is simply not to execute." There is widespread agreement among law enforcement officials, prosecutors, defense attorneys and legal scholars that capital punishment does not deter crime, that it is unfair, arbitrary and capricious in its application and that it protects the public no better than a life without parole sentence.Some of the most compelling testimony to the Maryland commission came from James P. Abbott, a New Jersey police chief who was once a strong supporter of capital punishment but changed his mind after studying the issue as a member of a similar panel in New Jersey. He now "unequivocally" opposes the death penalty, even in cases involving the killing of police officers. Asked what he would say to the family of a slain officer, he admitted to a loss for words: "I don't know what you tell the family," he said. It was an honest response to a painful dilemma. Yet Mr. Abbott's answer would have been equally true had the question been asked the other way around: What does one say to the family of an innocent person wrongly executed by the state? Perhaps to some questions there simply are no good answers. But that doesn't make retaining the death penalty an acceptable alternative. (source: Editorial, Baltimore Sun) UTAH: Death penalty decision pushed back in Ragsdale case Prosecutors agreed Wednesday to wait another 2 months before announcing whether they intend to seek the death penalty in David Ragsdale's capital murder case. Ragsdale recently dismissed his private attorney in favor of representation by court-appointed public defenders, who asked for the extension. The new defense team needs a good idea of the nature and quality of the prosecution's case before deciding whether to take the case to trial, explained prosecutor Dave Sturgill. "The hope is that the time will help them and David Ragsdale make better decisions about this case," Sturgill said. Ragsdale is accused of shooting his estranged wife to death at point-blank range in the parking lot of her Lehi church building this January. Prosecutors hope to resolve the case without a trial, Sturgill said. Documents filed in court by Ragsdale's sister maintain his innocence, stating that Ragsdale was mentally incapacitated by prescription drugs and unaware of his actions at the time of the shooting. Wednesday marked the second extension of the deadline for deciding whether to pursue the death penalty, which is normally determined within 60 days of arraignment. This will be the last extension, Sturgill said. The new deadline is Dec. 1, with a pre-trial conference set for Nov. 26. (source: Salt Lake Tribune)
[Deathpenalty] [POSSIBLE SPAM] death penalty news----TEXAS, VA., OKLA., MD., UTAH
Rick Halperin Thu, 25 Sep 2008 18:04:07 -0500 (Central Daylight Time)
