A Judge and a prosecutor have a relationship during a capital murder case, what could be wrong with this picture?

The question of whether a romantic relationship between a judge and prosecutor is unfair won't be decided by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.
The issue in the capital murder case of Charles Dean Hood roiled the legal community last summer, but the Court ruled Wednesday it would not consider the issue because defense attorneys did not raise it initially.
Defense attorney David Dow called the decision by Texas' highest criminal court "gutless."
"The question of whether there is a fundamental taint to this trial is, at this point, going to be decided by a federal court – if it's going to be decided by any court at all – because what the state court has said is, ‘We don't care,'" said Dow, litigation director for the Texas Defender Service.
Hood was not directly asking the appellate court for a new trial; rather, his petition sought to have the court decide if a secret affair between Judge Verla Sue Holland and Tom O'Connell, then the Collin County district attorney, had resulted in Hood's receiving an unfair trial in 1990. Hood is on death row for the 1989 robbery and murder of Ronald Williamson and Tracie Lynn Wallace in Plano. His attorneys had tried to explore the issue of whether the relationship between judge and prosecutor had affected the trial for years but had little except rumors.
Then a few weeks before Hood's June 2008 execution date, a former assistant district attorney filed an affidavit indicating he was aware of the relationship.
In September 2008, Hood's attorneys finally got the proof they needed by forcing depositions from the two parties under a civil procedure. At that time, Holland and O'Connell admitted to having a sexual relationship before Hood's trial, which had not been revealed to the defense at trial or during years of appeals.
Dow said he was stunned by the ruling. When the Court denied a stay on the issue last year, "it denied a stay because it said ‘There's no proof. Come back to us when you have some proof.'"
The service came back with that proof – acknowledgement from the two principals that an affair had occurred, "And what do they say?" Dow asked. "‘Tough, you lose any way."
The ruling came despite the fact that District Judge Greg Brewer had recommended Hood be allowed to pursue the claim, going so far as to say the state's "hands are unclean."




Link:
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/crime/stories/091709dntexhood.186fc49f6.html