Texas High Court Judge Defends Execution Order: We’re Not ‘Bloodthirsty’

Death Penalty

Texas High Court Judge Defends Execution Order: We’re Not ‘Bloodthirsty’

Posted Jun 19, 2008, 05:49 am CDT
By Debra Cassens Weiss

The judge in charge of the case for death-row inmate Charles Dean Hood is defending a ruling made without input from defense lawyers that allowed the execution to proceed.

“They said they needed one hour, but three hours later we had no response," Judge Cheryl Johnson told the Austin American-Statesman. "We waited."

Prison officials, conferring with Gov. Rick Perry, let Hood’s execution warrant expire shortly before midnight on Tuesday when they decided there was not enough time to carry out the lethal injection. Hood’s lawyers had filed a last-minute flurry of appeals, chronicled by ABAJournal.com throughout the day. They ended when Texas’ highest criminal court ruled at 9:18 p.m. that a lower court judge who ordered the execution stopped didn’t have authority to do so.

Hood was seeking more time to explore allegations that the judge who presided at his trial had a secret romance with the prosecutor. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals had ruled the claim should have been raised in a 1997 appeal.

Johnson spoke to the American-Statesman in response to criticism by the inmate’s lawyer, Gregory Wiercioch of the Texas Defender Service.

Wiercioch said defense lawyers should have been given a chance to file papers with the court. "In rapid litigation like this, to act without getting input from both sides is outrageous. It's not judicious," he told the American-Statesman.

Johnson told the newspaper the court is simply following the law. "We're always accused of being callous and bloodthirsty, when what we are doing is what the legislature requires us to do," she said.

Comments

Report Abuse

Be the first to comment.

Commenting has expired on this post.

ABA Journal - Law News Now

Death Penalty