Texas Death Row Inmate Loses Appeal

The U.S. Supreme Court has refused an appeal from attorneys for a Texas death row inmate who wanted an entire new trial rather than just a court-ordered resentencing hearing after it was disclosed his trial judge and prosecutor in Collin County had a secret affair.

The justices had no comment in the order Monday refusing to review Charles Dean Hood's case. Hood insists he's innocent of the 1989 fatal shootings of a woman and her boyfriend at a home in Plano in suburban Dallas.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ordered the new sentencing trial. Hood's lawyers contended the law at the time of his 1990 trial required an entire new trial.

The affair was disclosed as Hood's attorneys successfully headed off his scheduled execution three years ago.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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