Posted on Wed, Sep. 17, 2008
The Associated Press

DALLAS — Legal experts have criticized a judge and a prosecutor, calling their alleged affair in the years before trying a death penalty case "stupid" and "a black eye to the system."

They say the alleged affair between former Judge Verla Sue Holland and former Collin County District Attorney Thomas O’Connell raises ethical questions and could lead to appeals from inmates who claim that their trials were tainted by bias.

"Definitely there are people locked up . . . saying: 'Wait a minute. I was convicted in this judge’s court,’ " said Fred Moss, a Southern Methodist University law professor. "It’s such incredible bad judgment because it throws every conviction into doubt."

The alleged affair, an apparent open secret 20 years ago in Collin County legal circles, became part of the public record again last week. Lawyers for Death Row inmate Charles Dean Hood sought a stay of execution in the nation’s busiest death penalty state, arguing that Holland was biased because of her relationship with O’Connell.

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