Charles Hood is scheduled to be executed tonight at 6pm Texas time. According to the New York Times (here) and ABC-TV (here), Hood has alleged that the judge in his case was sleeping with the prosecutor in his case. Late yesterday, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied Mr. Hood's appeals on procedural grounds, declaring that the claim of judicial bias was raised too late. The court chose to dismiss the claim, despite the fact that (according to an email that I've just received), "only days ago, on June 3, 2008, a former assistant district attorney in the Collin County District Attorney's Office submitted an affidavit testifying that '[i]t was common knowledge' that Judge Holland and District Attorney O'Connell 'had a romantic relationship' for several years, including at the time of Mr. Hood's trial and death sentence."
Outraged? You might want to contact Governor Perry's office at 512-463-2000 and ask to speak to counsel handling the Charles Dean Hood case.
2 comments:
An affidavit with no personal knowledge . . . . yeah, we should stop an execution on that flimsy showing.
I will never understand how, in a christian country, the simple concepts of ..
1. Thou shalt not kill.
and
2. Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.
.. cannot be upheld. There is no ambiguity in the teachings of jesus on the subject of executions. They are wrong and thats final.
I feel bad for that oklahoman guy. How can a guy who accidentally killed someone be considered beyond redemption? I mean the guy did something stupid in a lovers rage and I gaurantee he would not have done it again so how is the death penalty warranted in that case anyway? Even by the twisted moral standards of the US I think its hard to justify that.
Oh well I guess Its just good that I live in a civilised part of the world where violent behaviour is not the norm, people dont kill each other for fun, there are no executions, or economy is not on the rocks and I can feel safe leaving my door unlocked.
America was the shining beacon of western democracy and the first world but Im afraid that it has long ago fallen from grace and nowadays it has justifiably taken its place at the butt end of everyone elses jokes.
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