Texas Headlines

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - Attorneys for a death row inmate scheduled to die next week are asking an appeals court to block his execution, saying his prosecutor and trial judge were lovers. Attorneys for Charles Dean Hood are telling the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals that the alleged romantic relationship between then-Collin County District Attorney Tom O'Connell and then-state District Judge Verla Sue Holland would have violated legal ethics.

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - Representatives of Utah's attorney general have met with a high-ranking member of a polygamist sect to discuss the recent raid at a West Texas ranch. The Salt Lake Tribune reports Willie Jessop hopes the meeting will "begin to open doors" with Utah authorities. Texas child-welfare officials removed more than 400 children from the ranch. Officials say 143 children are back at the ranch, living in 30 households. Another 178 from 33 families are living in the San Antonio area.

RANCHOS DE TAOS, N.M. (AP) - A memorial service is planned July 20th in Taos, New Mexico, for former Southern Methodist University interim president William Stallcup Jr. He was 87 when he died last Saturday at his home in Ranchos de Taos. He was appointed interim president in 1986. He succeeding Donald Shields, who retired after SMU received the so-called "death penalty" for violating NCAA rules. He presided over sweeping reforms in SMU's athletics programs and governance.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) - A Fort Worth, Texas man sought on a capital murder warrant is in a Wichita, Kansas, jail after his arrest by federal marshals. They say Jerome Overstreet had been wanted on a June 6th warrant out of Fort Worth for the death of Vicki Overstreet. Authorities say the suspect had blended in around Wichita and had a job with an area aircraft manufacturer.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)