HOUSTON — A day of desperate filings climaxed at midnight on Wednesday when prison officials ran out of time to carry out the execution of a Texas death row inmate who had lost his last-minute bids for a stay.
Gov. Rick Perry then immediately issued a one-time 30-day reprieve, according to The Houston Chronicle.
The inmate, Charles Hood, was shuttled to the death chamber several times as prosecutors, defense lawyers, the United States Supreme Court and Texas courts exchanged more than a dozen appeals and rulings throughout the night.
"We've had a lot of cases in Texas that defy common sense, but this does reach a new low," said Andrea Keilen, executive director of the Texas Defender Service.
The controversy started last week when lawyers for Mr. Hood accused the presiding judge and the lead prosecutor of having had a romantic relationship in 1990 during Mr. Hood's double murder trial.
On Tuesday afternoon, Mr. Hood's lawyers petitioned the Collin County District Court to stay his execution, calling for more information from current county prosecutors about the relationship.
The district judge granted that request but immediately recused himself from the case without reason. After several appeals from prosecutors, the state's highest court ruled that the lower court lacked authority to withdraw Mr. Hood's death warrant and ordered a new judge to reinstate the case.
Mr. Hood's lawyers then submitted another surge of appeals to the Criminal Court of Appeals and to the United States Supreme Court. The appeals were dismissed and the defense was about to process other filings when the prison announced that it would not be able to properly carry out the lethal injection protocol before the midnight deadline.
According to The Associated Press, prosecutors on Tuesday accused Mr. Hood's lawyers of using delay tactics.
Meanwhile, death penalty opponents and defense lawyers expressed outrage Tuesday, saying the courts had failed to address accusations of judicial bias and instead became tangled in elaborate legal proceedings.
"The issues tonight have been procedural and not about this issue between the trial judge and prosecutor," Ms. Keilen said. "We're hoping some court will look at this issue."
Lawrence J. Fox, a lawyer and professor of judicial ethics at the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard, said, "These proceedings are far too susceptible to human error and call into question if we ought to impose the ultimate sanction."
Mr. Hood would have been the 407th person to be executed in Texas, and the second in two weeks.
He was convicted in the 1989 murders of his supervisor, Ronald Williamson, and Mr. Williamson's girlfriend, Traci L. Wallace. They were found shot to death in Mr. Williamson's house in Plano. Mr. Hood pleaded not guilty and has maintained his innocence.
Source: The New York Times
