I’m a longtime supporter of the death penalty, but what’s happening in Charles Hood’s case in Texas isn’t right. If we are going to have the death penalty, we need to make sure that the process is fair and accurate.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (the state’s high court for criminal cases) recently granted a new sentencing hearing for Hood on a technical issue related to jury instructions but has refused to address the central issue in this case: The judge and the prosecutor at Hood’s trial had a long-term secret affair prior to the trial and concealed the relationship for 20 years. This was a secret that the pair kept even when they knew Hood was on the brink of execution and was trying to verify the rumors of the relationship.
