From the Dallas Morning News:

Troubled that innocent people have been imprisoned by faulty prosecutions, District Attorney Craig Watkins said Monday that he would re-examine nearly 40 death penalty convictions and would seek to halt executions, if necessary, to give the reviews time to proceed.

Mr. Watkins told The Dallas Morning News that problems exposed by 19 DNA-based exonerations in Dallas County have convinced him he should ensure that no death row inmate is actually innocent.

Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins “It’s not saying I’m putting a moratorium on the death penalty,” said Mr. Watkins, whose reviews would be of all of the cases now on death row handled by his predecessors. “It’s saying that maybe we should withdraw those dates and look at those cases from a new perspective to make sure that those individuals that are on death row need to be there and they need to be executed.”

From The Houston Chronicle

A Texas death row inmate whose lawyers argued a secret romantic relationship between the judge and prosecutor at his trial tainted the proceedings 19 years ago won a reprieve Tuesday from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals that blocked his lethal injection set for the following day.

The state’s highest criminal court, however, stopped Charles Dean Hood’s execution not because of the alleged affair between retired Judge Verla Sue Holland and former Collin County District Attorney Tom O’Connell, but because of what it said were “developments in the law regarding (jury) nullification instructions.”

The Austin-based court, where Holland once served as a judge after her stint as a district judge in the suburban Dallas county, said it would be “prudent to reconsider the decision we issued” in previously dismissing Hood’s appeal that challenged jury instructions.

At the same time, the court dismissed claims Hood’s attorneys filed that he was denied a fair trial because of what would be a legally unethical relationship between Holland and O’Connell and arguments that Hood’s execution set for Wednesday would twice put his life in jeopardy.

On June 17, lengthy appeals that also focused on the romantic relationship cleared the courts but Texas Department of Criminal Justice officials scrapped the execution because they ran out of time to properly carry it out as the midnight deadline approached.

The court’s reprieve also came almost simultaneously as Hood’s lawyers sent a letter to Gov. Rick Perry, whom they had asked for a 30-day reprieve, in which they said Holland and O’Connell “admitted under oath that they had an intimate sexual relationship for many years.”

Holland was deposed earlier Tuesday under a court order Hood’s attorneys won on Monday. O’Connell was deposed late Monday.

“The intimate sexual relationship between the judge and the district attorney began several years prior to the trial of Mr. Hood,” lawyer Greg Wiercioch said in his letter to the governor re-emphasizing his petition for a reprieve.

“While Mr. O’Connell and Judge Holland have different recollections as to when the affair ceased containing an intimate sexual component, there is no doubt that the relationship was sexual in the years immediately leading up to the time that Judge Holland had jurisdiction over the case.”

Wiercioch said the pair confirmed they kept the relationship secret.

“She never disclosed it to a single litigant or lawyer who appeared before her, and she never recused herself from hearing a single case because of her affair with the elected district attorney,” the lawyer wrote. “Similarly, Mr. O’Connell never disclosed the romantic relationship to any of his adversaries nor did he recuse himself or his office from prosecuting a single case because of his affair with Judge Holland.”

Adam Axel reports by email

For the last 12 years Kenneth Foster has been isolated in his cell for at least 22 hours per day either on death row – in solitary confinement (11 years) or for the last 1 year housed in the most restrictive unit possible at the McConnell Unit. I am happy to report that finally, after one year of having his sentence commuted he has been granted level G2 status and is in general population at the McConnell Unit. He is FINALLY allowed contact visits and he had his first today with his Grandfather. His Grandfather told me that he cannot describe in words the excitement that Kenneth had. He is also now assigned a job and is working in the kitchen. I will share more details as they arrive.

Best,

Adam

The Houston Chroncile reports that Greg Wright’s execution has been stayed and rescheduled for Oct 30.

If you have not written the governor and Board of Pardons and Paroles asking them to commute Wright’s punishment from death you can do so by clicking here.

HOUSTON — The scheduled execution next week of a homeless man convicted of taking part in the fatal stabbing of a sympathetic Dallas County woman was put off Friday until next month.

Gregory Wright, 42, faced lethal injection Tuesday for the 1997 fatal stabbing of Donna Duncan Vick at her home in DeSoto, about 15 miles south of Dallas.

The 52-year-old widow regularly ministered to the homeless and had given Wright food, shelter and money.

Wright’s new date for punishment in Huntsville is Oct. 30, Dallas County assistant district attorney Mike Ware said Friday.

Bruce Anton, Wright’s attorney, had sought the delay so additional DNA testing could be conducted on Wright’s clothing, which prosecutors used at his trial to tie him to the woman’s slaying.

A second man, John Wade Adams, also was tried for Vick’s slaying and sent to death row. Wade, who was homeless and a friend of Wright’s, does not have an execution date.

The Dallas Morning News says a stay may be on the horizon in the case of Charles Hood after the Texas Attorney General’s office said it would file a legal brief today asking that the trial court fully review the matter, even if it means delaying the execution.

The Texas attorney general’s office on Thursday took the unusual step of joining the defense in saying that death row inmate Charles Dean Hood should not die until after an investigation into an alleged romantic relationship at the time of his trial between the prosecutor and judge.

Although noting that the facts of the murders of Ronald Williamson and Tracie Lynn Wallace are not in question, Attorney General Greg Abbott wrote in a letter to Collin County District Attorney John Roach, “The impartiality of a defendant’s trial and conviction must be beyond reproach.”

The letter said that the attorney general’s office would file a legal brief today asking that the trial court fully review the matter, even if it means delaying the execution.

“Because of the unique nature of the issues in this matter – and to protect the integrity of the Texas legal system – we will ask the court to thoroughly review the defendant’s claims before the execution proceeds,” the letter said.

The Hood case has drawn intense scrutiny from legal ethicists, as well as death penalty advocates and opponents who keep a close eye on the nation’s busiest death chamber.

The case drew national attention in June when Mr. Hood came within hours of execution as attorneys wrangled over final appeals, including one related to the alleged romance. Though Mr. Hood was cleared for execution, his death warrant expired before the sentence could be carried out.

Attorneys stunned

Defense attorneys for Mr. Hood, who have been hammering at the wall of silence surrounding the alleged relationship, were stunned by the attorney general’s action.

“I had no idea this was coming,” said Greg Wiercioch. “I’m just pleased that the attorney general’s office is doing the right thing in this case. I’m astounded.”

Whether the unusual move will save Mr. Hood, who is set for execution Wednesday for the 1989 slayings, is unclear. The attorney general’s office does not have jurisdiction in the case, but Mr. Wiercioch said the move should make it easier to obtain a stay of execution from either the governor or the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.