A former judge and a former district attorney in Texas broke a lengthy silence and admitted under oath that they had engaged in a years-long sexual relationship but still participated in the trial of a man who was convicted of a 1989 double murder and sentenced to death, according to documents filed Tuesday.
Charles Dean Hood had been scheduled to die June 17, but the death warrant ran out while defense attorneys and prosecutors wrangled over the controversial allegations. At that point, the judge, Verla Sue Holland, and the district attorney, Thomas O'Connell, refused to confirm their affair.
A new execution date had been set for today, and a hearing on Hood's claims that the alleged affair amounted to a conflict of interest was set for Friday -- two days after his scheduled death.
But under a court order that Hood's attorneys won Monday, O'Connell was questioned under oath late Monday and Holland on Tuesday morning. According to a request for a reprieve that Hood's attorneys filed with Texas Gov. Rick Perry, the pair admitted "they had an intimate sexual relationship for many years" and kept it secret.
Holland and O'Connell, according to the letter sent to Perry, have different recollections about when the affair ended. But "even after their romance ended," the letter says, "Judge Holland and Mr. O'Connell remained good, close friends."
Late Tuesday, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals granted Hood a stay -- but not because of the alleged affair. The court said it would reconsider its previous dismissal of Hood's appeal challenging jury instructions. At the same time, the court dismissed claims that Hood had been denied a fair trial because of the alleged affair, the Associated Press reported.
Hood was convicted in the 1989 slayings of two people in Plano, Texas, in 1990. He maintains his innocence, but his fingerprints were found at the scene and he was driving one of the victim's cars. He contends that he lived at the home and that he had permission to drive the car.
Hood's attorneys made the allegation about the affair for the first time this year after a former prosecutor said in an affidavit that Holland and O'Connell's relationship was "common knowledge" in legal circles.
Prosecutors could not be reached for comment Tuesday. A judge has issued a gag order on all parties.
Holland's lawyer, Bill Boyd, told the Associated Press that Hood's lawyers should not have mentioned the testimony in their letter to Perry.
