Lawyers Attempt To Halt Execution, Alleging Affair

McKINNEY, Texas (AP) – Lawyers for a death row inmate asked the state’s highest criminal appeals court today to block his scheduled execution this week.

Charles Dean Hood’s attorneys say his judge and prosecutor were having an affair during his Collin County murder trial.

Hood is scheduled to die Wednesday night in the state death chamber in Huntsville for the 1989 slayings of a former stripper and her boyfriend in Plano. That’s why his attorneys are asking for a stay of execution from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in Austin.

Hood’s attorneys also are asking Governor Rick Perry for a reprieve and for the state attorney general’s office to intervene and ask the governor to issue a reprieve.

Retired state District Judge Verla Sue Holland and former Collin County district attorney Tom O’Connell have declined to address the allegations that they were having the affair.

Meanwhile, efforts to depose Holland and O’Connell are on hold today as attorneys from both sides battle over jurisdiction. Hood’s attorneys want to keep the case in state court, while attorneys for Holland and O’Connell want it moved to federal court.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)