Thursday, September 17, 2009

Conviction upheld even though the judge and prosecutor were dating

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals — the state’s supreme court on criminal matters — has ruled that a man facing the death penalty for murder will not get a new trial despite the fact that the prosecutor on the case and the judge who tried the case were at the time involved in a romantic affair. Oh, and by the way, eight of the nine judges who decided the case had previously served on the same bench as the judge who is at the center of the controversy.

For the full story, comments and links to other sources, go here and here.

Over at Legal Ethics Forum, Prof. Andrew Perlman adds: "Notably, and again not surprisingly, the Texas court's order offers no legal analysis or reasoning. It simply offers a bare bones conclusion: "We find that the allegation fails to satisfy the requirements of Article 11.071, § 5(a)." And why is that, exactly? If a law school graduate offered that as "legal analysis," it wouldn't suffice to pass the bar exam. Apparently, it suffices for Texas judges in capital cases when one of their former colleagues is accused of misconduct. This is not the first time that I've seen a state court in a capital case summarily reject a strong argument without any legal analysis, and it is unlikely to be the last. Kudos to the dissent for actually addressing the evidence and issues that were presented."

UPDATE on this story April 21, 2010.

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