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Disgrace! CCA lets stand egregious official misconduct in capital murder case

Let's face it: The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has become a flat-out embarrassment.Most recently, the CCA decided not to rule whether a judge and prosecutor having an affair during a capital murder trial tainted the process in the Charles Dean Hood case, the Dallas News reports today. Notably the trial judge, who concealed the affair for man years before being forced to reveal it in a civil deposition, went on to serve with eight of the nine members on the court as a judge on the CCA, so it's impossible to avoid the impression that they're dismissing Hood's claim on procedural grounds to avoid ruling on the merits of their colleague's egregious misconduct.The ostensible reason for their ruling was that Hood didn't raise the issue soon enough...continue to full post

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on September 16, 2009 (boomark / email).