Tuesday night, Charles Dean Hood, from Texas, should have been executed, but he got
lucky, as prison officials stopped the execution.
The ex club bouncer was convicted almost 20 years of killing
Ronald Williamson and Tracie Lynn Wallace and he was supposed to be executed
Tuesday night. According to The Associated Press, Hood won a reprieve on the
day he had to be executed, but later he was heading to the death chamber, as the
Supreme Court rejected three appeals. It was little over 11 p.m. when prison
officials realized that they couldn’t make all the arrangements before the
midnight deadline.
Then, Gov. Rick Perry issued a 30-day reprieve.
Apparently State District Judge Curt Henderson lifted the
death warrant. This decision made the prosecutors appeal and The Texas Court of
Criminal Appeals revoked the order because Henderson didn’t have the authority to make
such a decision.
According to The New York Times, Hood’s lawyers accused the
judge who was on the case of being involved in a romantic relationship with the
lead prosecutor. This happened in 1990, during Hood’s trial. After some time,
the judge recused himself from the case, but didn’t give a reason. A new judge
was assigned.
Hood’s lawyers went from one appeal to another and the
prosecutors said that they were just trying to win some time.
Expressing his opinion regarding the death penalty, Lawrence
J. Fox, a lawyer and professor of judicial ethics at the University of Pennsylvania
and Harvard, said that “these proceedings” were “susceptible to human error”
and officials should think if the death penalty was really the best solution.
Hood would have been Texas’
407th executed person. He remained in Huntsville.
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