A judge moved a hearing for a condemned inmate because the former hearing was scheduled to be long after his execution. On Thursday, the judge stated that the lawyers of the inmate have to fight about the sentence while he is still alive. The inmate’s lawyers say that the execution sentence was wrong because the judge was having an affair with a prosecutor.

Greg Brewer, the State District Judge, moved the hearing to Monday and Charles Dean Hood has to be executed on Wednesday for the 1989 slaying of a couple in Plano, Dallas. Robert Dry, another judge, had scheduled the same hearing on September 12, two days after Hood would be executed.

Monday’s hearing will show arguments that Brewer’s murder trial had been unfair because the affair the judge presiding over the trail, Verla Sue Holland, had with former Colin County District Attorney Tom O’Connell. Holland is now retired and O’Connell is in private practice, but both of them will have to be interviewed by lawyers on Monday.

"Because of the unique nature of the issues in this matter — and to protect the integrity of the Texas legal system — we will ask the court to thoroughly review this matter," said Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott. He added that "there appears to be little doubt that Hood deserves the sentence he was given."

One of Hood’s lawyers said they might need extra help from the governor as they believe that the attorney general’s actions were highly unusual. The defense said that the trial should be held before Hood’s execution, because the relationship between the judge and the lawyer could serve “as the basis for a reprieve request to the governor of Texas."

Hood, 39, was scheduled to be executed on June 17 but the lethal injection was aborted by state prison officials after they had run out of time to fulfill the execution by midnight.