USA - Texas. After years of insisting he was innocent of murder, Charles Dean Hood, 43, white, pleads guilty, takes life sentence.

After years of insisting he was innocent of murder, Charles Dean Hood, 43, white, pleads guilty, takes life sentence. Hood, who came within hours of being executed in 2008, has pleaded guilty and accepted a life prison term rather than face a new sentencing trial next week. Hood was sentenced to life and cannot appeal. He will not receive credit for the 23 years he has spent on death row. Hood was originally convicted in 1990 of killing Ronald Williamson, 46, and his girlfriend, Tracie Lynn Wallace, 26, in their Plano home. John Schomburger first assistant district attorney in Collin County said prosecutors felt "vindicated in the sense that he acknowledged what we knew he did - murder those people. "Our goal was is to see that he's never released from prison and this plea deal is the best way to achieve that goal." Hood had maintained his innocence despite the evidence against him: he was arrested in Indiana while driving Williamson's Cadillac. He attempted to cash a forged check on 1 of Williamson's accounts and to use his credit card. And he tried to pawn some of his jewelry. Hood's case created a legal furor several years ago after his attorneys waged a last minute battle to keep him from execution by raising allegations that the judge in his trial had been involved in a longstanding romantic relationship with the district attorney. Defense attorneys had thrown appellate courts into an uproar after they raised the issue, affecting Hood's right to a fair trial. The former judge and prosecutor eventually acknowledged the affair but appellate courts never fully addressed whether it violated Hood's right to a fair trial. Instead, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals granted Hood a new sentencing trial because jurors were not given proper instructions on considering mitigating evidence that he did not deserve the death penalty. The new sentencing trial was scheduled Feb. 14 but Hood entered a guilty plea on Jan. 31. Kathryn Kase, executive director of the Texas Defender Service, said, "The life outcome is a fitting outcome for the case." Julie Wallace, sister of one of the victims, said Friday she was grateful the case was over. She gave an impact statement in court. "Now he is just a number," she wrote in an e-mail. "I thank God that I am finally able to have closure." (See also 03/09/2008; 04/09/2008; 08/09/2008; 09/09/2008; 01/05/2009; 16/09/2009; 24/02/2010, 19/04/2010).