Texas judge in death row appeal faces charges

She didn’t let clerk’s office stay open late, killer executed 4 hours later

"SAN ANTONIO - As lawyers frantically tried to file the last-minute appeal that could have halted the execution of a death row inmate, the Texas judge who oversaw the only court who could hear it was preparing to shut the doors for the day.

"We close at 5," Judge Sharon Keller told a court staffer Sept. 25, 2007.

The appeal was never heard, and four hours later, convicted killer Michael Wayne Richard was executed. Now it's Keller who will be before a judge, facing charges that could end her career in a special trial that begins Monday in San Antonio. Denying the rights of a condemned man is among five judicial misconduct charges that Keller, the presiding judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, is up against.

Nicknamed "Sharon Killer" among critics for a tough-on-crime reputation crafted over the years, Keller is the highest-ranking judge in Texas to be put on trial by the state Commission on Judicial Conduct. The judge overseeing the trial will submit a report to the commission, which could dismiss the charges, issue a censure or suggest Keller be removed from the bench..."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32441665/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/

This is the same judge:

"DALLAS — If Sharon Keller, the presiding judge of Texas’ highest criminal court, has ever doubted her judgment, she has not shown it.

Sharon Keller, who was first elected to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in 1994, is now its presiding judge.

In 1998, Judge Keller wrote the opinion rejecting a new trial for Roy Criner, a mentally retarded man convicted of rape and murder, even though DNA tests after his trial showed that it was not his semen in the victim.
“We can’t give new trials to everyone who establishes, after conviction, that they might be innocent.” :wtf:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/08/us/08judge.html

Republican? You betcha. I hope she's disbarred.

something.

What she did is reprehensible.

The texas death fetish is that strong,

She has few allies other than the Texas voter.

:banghead:

Unlike certain Texas governors with a similarly cavalier attitude to the DP.

I have encountered some extremely conservative legal circles in my career and I have never met anybody who takes this chick seriously, her crowning achievement of sleaze was theorizing that a deceased rape victim might have had consensual sex immediately after being raped and that the earlier rapist had worn a condom as a plausible reason to disregard the results of a DNA test.

She had hoped for a nomination to a higher court under Bush, but she is even too crazy for the Federalist Society. Only the Cato Institute was lobbying on her behalf.

I think she will be removed from the bench.

Disbarment seems unlikely, however.

kills 'em all and lets god sort 'em out.

May she rot in hell.

Now, that's a REAL judge! Two thumbs up! Recc'd! A+++, would kill again!

</scalia>

"There is no basis in text, tradition, or even in contemporary practice ... for finding in the Constitution a right to demand consideration of newly discovered evidence of innocence brought forward after conviction."

-- Antonin Scalia

"Whut he said."

-- Clarence "Turd Polisher" Thomas

12 hours ago

SAN ANTONIO — As lawyers frantically tried to file the last-minute appeal that could have halted the execution of a death row inmate, the Texas judge who oversaw the only court who could hear it was preparing to shut the doors for the day.

"We close at 5," Judge Sharon Keller told a court staffer Sept. 25, 2007.

The appeal was never heard, and four hours later, convicted killer Michael Wayne Richard was executed. Now it's Keller who will be before a judge, facing charges that could end her career in a special trial that begins Monday in San Antonio. Denying the rights of a condemned man is among five judicial misconduct charges that Keller, the presiding judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, is up against.

Nicknamed "Sharon Killer" among critics for a tough-on-crime reputation crafted over the years, Keller is the highest-ranking judge in Texas to be put on trial by the state Commission on Judicial Conduct. The judge overseeing the trial will submit a report to the commission, which could dismiss the charges, issue a censure or suggest Keller be removed from the bench.

Keller, a Republican who has served on the court since 1994, has not spoken publicly since being charged in February. Her attorney, Chip Babcock, said the widely repeated narrative of what happened the day Richard was executed isn't accurate.

Read more

Local coverage:
MySanAntonio: Embattled judge faces own trial
Dallas Morning News: COMMISSION ON JUDICIAL CONDUCT
Houston Chronicle: Sitting on the other side of the bench[br /(Hearing starts today for judge accused of not keeping offices open late for a death row appeal)

Source: Austin American-Statesman

Former court counsel Ed Marty's statement could raise doubts.

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

SAN ANTONIO — The trial on misconduct charges against Sharon Keller, the state's top criminal judge, began Monday with pointed criticism from one of Keller's colleagues — and one surprise revelation.

Judge Cheryl Johnson, called to testify by the prosecution, said Keller violated Court of Criminal Appeals procedure in 2007 by unilaterally denying defense lawyers the opportunity to file execution-day briefs after 5 p.m.

"She should have directed (the request to file late briefs) to me," said Johnson, who had been assigned by rotation to be the only judge expected to handle execution-day phone calls, faxes and filings from lawyers for the inmate, Michael Richard.

"And I would have told them that they could file," Johnson said. "It's an execution. They might be valid pleadings. I have no other way of knowing."

Johnson, however, said she didn't learn about the request for more time until four days after Richard was executed — an account contradicted in parts of a witness deposition revealed Monday.

Read more

These are from Monday; hopefully, there'll be fresh coverage later today or tomorrow morning.

Keller trial: Defense opening statement
Keller trial: Opening statement by the prosecution

Source: Austin American-Statesman

By Chuck Lindell | Tuesday, August 18, 2009, 09:20 PM

Judge Sharon Keller testified for about 75 minutes Tuesday, and she’ll return to the stand Wednesday morning when her trial resumes at 10 a.m.

So far, she’s been questioned only by Austin lawyer Mike McKetta, and it’s plain to see his focus is on the allegation that Keller violated the court’s execution-day procedures.

To review, here’s the key portion of court’s procedures, which were in effect on Sept. 25, 2007 but not put into writing until two months after Richard’s execution:



<snip>

McKetta: “In one of the two calls, you said, ‘Why should the staff have to remain after hours just because lawyers can’t get their work done on time?’

Keller: “I may have said something like that. …”

McKetta: “Are you here to dispute that testimony?”

Keller: “Specifically? No.”

Read more

He's an old law school friend, and a great person. We worked in several campaigns together, including several for our mutual and long time friend, Lloyd Doggett.

He's a great lawyer, and one of those people who is effortlessly friendly.

Judge Keller's behavior shames the bar and the judiciary.

We have a few Justices of the Peace removed every year. There are over 1000 of them in Texas, and they don't have to be a lawyer. In rural areas, there can be bad abuse of process by JPs that are untrained in law. They might convict someone of an offense, then sentence them to community service - building a fence at the judge's house, or maybe a deck, for example.

to issue search and/or arrest warrants, for example? Are they appointed or elected?

I know Arkansas has elected JPs, but they have no judicial authority that I know of.

They go to a class and get some training, but they really don't have any concept of admissible evidence, constitutional rights, or law in general. They know JP law like an insurance adjuster knows insurance law - meaning very little, and only from the company perspective.

They only try minor crimes and minor civil cases. They roll over for law enforecement.

Especially rollin' over for LE part. :(

Straight up, this woman is as guilty of murder as those she condemned.

However, Judge Keller could be removed from the bench. :hi:

Friedrich Dürrenmatt, a swiss author, once wrote, "Justice is on a level to which the law seldom has access,". This case exemplifies perfectly what he meant.

Aug. 20, 2009, 12:27AM

SAN ANTONIO — The presiding judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals who refused to keep open the clerk's office before a last-minute death row appeal could be filed told a crowded courtroom Wednesday she would do nothing different if presented again with a similar request.

“Yes, that is correct,” Judge Sharon Keller said from the witness stand when asked if she would respond the same as Sept. 25, 2007, the day death row inmate Michael Richard was executed after being denied a request to file an appeal after 5 p.m.

Immediately after her answer, special prosecutor Mike McKetta said, “Pass the witness.”

<snip>

McKetta also pointed out in Wednesday's testimony that Keller appeared to have a different position when responding to a federal lawsuit that Richard's family filed against her in 2007. In court documents, Keller argued that she was exempt from the suit because her actions that day were protected by judicial immunity. Her lawyers for the lawsuit referred to the phone conversation as “effectively an oral request for a stay of execution.”

After Keller finished testifying Wednesday, prosecutors played a taped deposition from Marty before resting their case.

When asked if there was anything he would have done differently about the conversation, Marty said he had hoped Keller would agree to let the clerk accept the filing late, but once he received her answer, he felt there was nothing more he could do. He wasn't allowed to contact litigants unless they called him, he said, and the chain of command prevented him from approaching another judge.

Read more

I find it surprising that a courtroom could contain her ego.

Decision will come later on whether judge violated court rules regarding 2007 execution appeal.

Friday, August 21, 2009

SAN ANTONIO — Dismissing most of Judge Sharon Keller's defenses as legally irrelevant, prosecutor Mike McKetta said the state's highest criminal judge failed to perform her job competently in one of the most crucial areas of the law: the death penalty.

"What kind of telephone call can you get on execution day that could be more urgent than this one: 'We are trying to file'?" McKetta asked Thursday as Keller's four-day misconduct trial came to an end.

<snip>

Keller's trial ended without a resolution.Under rules governing cases of alleged misconduct against judges, District Judge David Berchelmann Jr. will compile "findings of fact" for the State Commission on Judicial Conduct.

The 13-member commission will rely on the findings to decide among three options: drop the charges, censure Keller or suggest that she be removed from office. A removal recommendation would be ruled on by a specially created panel of seven appellate court judges.

In his closing arguments Thursday, McKetta urged Berchelmann to focus on conduct — "what Judge Keller knew, said, thought, decided, did and failed to do."

<snip>

Berchelmann has no time limit to make the findings beyond a state rule that says he must act promptly.

Read more