Supreme Court petitioned to hear the Charles Hood case

Via Grits, one of the more embarrassing rulings from the Court of Criminal Appeals – and you know how much that is saying – has been appealed to the US Supreme Court.

A former governor, a former district attorney, a former U.S. attorney from North Texas, and the former director of the FBI are among a group of 21 lawyers who have petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to hear a controversial Texas death penalty case.

The group, which was organized by the Constitution Project, is asking the court to hear the case of Charles Dean Hood, who was sentenced to death for killing two people in Collin County in 1989. Hood’s case has garnered national attention not for the horrific crime, but because the prosecutor in the case had an intimate relationship with the judge.

Yes, the infamous hot judge-on-prosecutor action case. If SCOTUS allows this to go forward, expect a lot of our state’s dirty undies (the lacy unmentionable kind, naturally) to be prominently displayed in public once again. The issue, as with the Sharon Keller saga, is not about the death penalty itself but about whether or not our judiciary can be trusted to follow its own rules of conduct. The fact that this is even in question is mortifying enough, but there you have it. I sure hope this one gets heard. More from Grits here.

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