(June 13, 2008)--Lawyers for a convicted North Texas killer who is facing execution next week have filed an appeal that claims the prosecutor and trial judge were having an affair at the time of his trial.
Attorneys for Charles Dean Hood are asking the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to halt the execution scheduled for Tuesday.
They say the alleged romantic relationship between then-Collin County District Attorney Tom O'Connell and then-state District Judge Verla Sue Holland would have violated legal ethics.
Hood was sentenced to die for a double slaying in suburban Dallas 19 years ago.
In an appeal filed Thursday with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and the trial court in Collin County, Hood's lawyers ask for a new trial.
In an affidavit, ex-prosecutor Matthew Goeller said it was
common knowledge that Holland and O'Connell "had a romantic
relationship" from at least 1987 until about 1993.
Neither Holland nor O'Connell, now in private practice, returned telephone calls left for them by The Associated Press.
The accusations first surfaced three years ago in a story on the Internet news site Salon.com.
Hood was convicted in the shooting deaths of Ronald Williamson and Tracie Lynn Wallace at Williamson's Plano home.
He stole money and other items before taking his victim's car and fleeing to Indiana, where he was later arrested.
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