[last update]

The TCCA changed its mind, decided the execution warrant should not have been withdrawn and finally found a judge to reissue the execution warrant. Problem?, it happened too late, the original execution expired before the execution could be carried out . From the Dallas Morning News

After hours of legal wrangling between attorneys and judges, including protests from leading legal ethicists over an alleged relationship between a judge and prosecutor in the trial of Charles Dean Hood, Tuesday passed without the Collin County murderer’s execution.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ultimately green-lighted the execution by ordering a local judge to reinstate a death warrant that had been withdrawn by another judge. The death warrant was reinstated, but the execution was called off shortly before midnight when prison officials said they didn’t have time to ensure it was conducted properly before the midnight deadline for the death warrant was to expire.

The bizarre tug-of-war between the lower court and the state’s highest criminal court over whether Mr. Hood got a fair trial is likely to roil death penalty advocates and opponents who keep a close eye on the nation’s busiest death penalty state.

Mr. Hood came within 90 minutes of his scheduled 6 p.m. execution — which was delayed after a judge vacated his death warrant. But he could hardly draw a ragged breath of relief before prosecutors filed an appeal to have his sentence for a Plano double-slaying carried out.

[via Stand Down]
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[update]

The CCA just denied the appeal. [here]

Press reports out of Austin note that the State has appealed the withdraw of Charles Hood’s execution date. Mr. Hood is to remain at the Walls Unit pending the outcome of the State’s appeal. [more here]

Grits offers a great take away lesson:

Even if you’re a death penalty supporter you can’t think it’s a good thing for Texas’ highest criminal court to rubber stamp executions with such obvious problems in the case, especially when there’s a conflict of interest that might implicate them personally. You just don’t use a legal technicality to avoid examining possible wrongdoing by your friend, not when somebody’s life is literally hanging in the balance.

All of the recent SCOTUS-created restrictions on the death penalty – for juveniles, for the mentally retarded, in cases where black jurors were eliminated because of race – were established because of routine abuses, both real and perceived, allowed in Texas courts by the CCA. In each instance, SCOTUS found Texas’ judicial practices so egregious it eliminated the death penalty or ordered new trials for large classes of defendants. I’ve often thought that if SCOTUS ever does wind up abolishing the death penalty entirely down the line, it might well be because Texas does the most executions and our courts aren’t giving these cases enough scrutiny.