Winehole23
09-17-2009, 11:56 AM
Disgrace! CCA lets stand egregious official misconduct in capital murder case (http://gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.com/2009/09/disgrace-cca-lets-stand-egregious.html)
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 (http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/crime/stories/091709dntexhood.186fc49f6.html). Notably the trial judge, who concealed the affair for many 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. But no one denies that's because the prosecutor and judge in the Collin County case concealed their misconduct for years and the affair could not be reliably proven until 2008. According to the News:
[Hood's attorney David] Dow said he was stunned by the ruling. When the Court denied a stay on the issue last year, "it denied a stay because it said ‘There's no proof. Come back to us when you have some proof.'"
The service came back with that proof – acknowledgement from the two principals that an affair had occurred, "And what do they say?" Dow asked. "‘Tough, you lose any way."
The ruling came despite the fact that District Judge Greg Brewer had recommended Hood be allowed to pursue the claim, going so far as to say the state's "hands are unclean."
Brewer said Hood's legal team exercised "reasonable diligence" during the years, and that prosecutors' claim that the defense had moved too slowly was not valid.
Between the episode that caused the Judicial Conduct Commission to instigate removal proceedings against Presiding Judge Sharon Keller, a series of embarrassing, high-profile smackdowns by federal courts, and now this tacit approval of egregious official misconduct, these folks seem utterly oblivious to the need for the public to have confidence in the justice system. A majority of CCA judges don't seem to realize the extent to which they're disgracing themselves and shaming the entire state's legal community by indulging in such self serving abnegations of justice.
Surely the CCA is the biggest embarrassment in all of Texas state government - arguably without even a close second.
UPDATE: Here are links to the court's per curiam order (http://www.cca.courts.state.tx.us/OPINIONS/PDFOPINIONINFO2.ASP?OPINIONID=18735&FILENAME=WR-41,168-11.PDF) and a dissent (http://www.cca.courts.state.tx.us/OPINIONS/PDFOPINIONINFO2.ASP?OPINIONID=18739&FILENAME=WR-41,168-11%20DISSENT.PDF) by Judge Cathy Cochran, joined by Judges Price and Holcomb. MORE: Best headline award on this story goes to Charles Kuffner who titled his blog post on the topic, "CCA gives its approval to hot judge-on-prosecutor action (http://offthekuff.com/wp/?p=21850)."
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 (http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/crime/stories/091709dntexhood.186fc49f6.html). Notably the trial judge, who concealed the affair for many 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. But no one denies that's because the prosecutor and judge in the Collin County case concealed their misconduct for years and the affair could not be reliably proven until 2008. According to the News:
[Hood's attorney David] Dow said he was stunned by the ruling. When the Court denied a stay on the issue last year, "it denied a stay because it said ‘There's no proof. Come back to us when you have some proof.'"
The service came back with that proof – acknowledgement from the two principals that an affair had occurred, "And what do they say?" Dow asked. "‘Tough, you lose any way."
The ruling came despite the fact that District Judge Greg Brewer had recommended Hood be allowed to pursue the claim, going so far as to say the state's "hands are unclean."
Brewer said Hood's legal team exercised "reasonable diligence" during the years, and that prosecutors' claim that the defense had moved too slowly was not valid.
Between the episode that caused the Judicial Conduct Commission to instigate removal proceedings against Presiding Judge Sharon Keller, a series of embarrassing, high-profile smackdowns by federal courts, and now this tacit approval of egregious official misconduct, these folks seem utterly oblivious to the need for the public to have confidence in the justice system. A majority of CCA judges don't seem to realize the extent to which they're disgracing themselves and shaming the entire state's legal community by indulging in such self serving abnegations of justice.
Surely the CCA is the biggest embarrassment in all of Texas state government - arguably without even a close second.
UPDATE: Here are links to the court's per curiam order (http://www.cca.courts.state.tx.us/OPINIONS/PDFOPINIONINFO2.ASP?OPINIONID=18735&FILENAME=WR-41,168-11.PDF) and a dissent (http://www.cca.courts.state.tx.us/OPINIONS/PDFOPINIONINFO2.ASP?OPINIONID=18739&FILENAME=WR-41,168-11%20DISSENT.PDF) by Judge Cathy Cochran, joined by Judges Price and Holcomb. MORE: Best headline award on this story goes to Charles Kuffner who titled his blog post on the topic, "CCA gives its approval to hot judge-on-prosecutor action (http://offthekuff.com/wp/?p=21850)."