Appellate Law

At least she is honest about not taking defendant?s arguments seriously

By S. COTUS

It is always funny to see the biggest hacks clam to want to ?see all sides? or some crap like that. But, in Texas, you get to be a judge by making statements that claim that you are a ?pro-prosecution? judge or ?prosecution-oriented.?

When the 41-year-old Keller introduced herself, she told the audience she would be a "prosecution-oriented judge." That may seem like a throwaway campaign line, but to a stickler for judicial conduct like Bayless, it was inexcusable.

?

"I guess what pro-prosecution means is seeing legal issues from the perspective of the state instead of the perspective of the defense," she told The Dallas Morning News. 

In trying to figure out what law school she went to, I found that someone registered a domain with her name. She went to SMU. While I don?t have much hope that this will happen, I would like to see the dean of the law school, John B. Attanasio, explain whether it is appropriate for a judge sitting on a ?Court of Criminal Appeals? to describe themselves as ?pro-prosecution" and whether it tells its law students to declare that they are "pro-husband" if they plan on going to be family court judges.  I can only assume that all SMU grads "think" like she does.

Now, what I wonder is why other judges that see the world as just a matter of killing people and putting them in jail can?t come out and say this? After all, shouldn?t the public know that a defendant?s arguments will NEVER be taken seriously, and that a given judge doesn?t really who she victimizes by his decisions. Instead, outside of   Texas we seem to hide behind all these ethical rules which prevents judges from saying what side they are biased in favor of.  Tnx. C&F

Update: Here is a PBS  interview, in which she explains why new trials are bad and expresses her glee at keeping people in jail.  Of course, many judges are like this, but they don't go on national TV and act like it is a good thing.  They blabber on about how intellectual they are.  In this case, then-governor George W. Bush ended up pardoning the guy after the courts were too drunk on other peoples' misery.   Apparently, this is what Southern Methodist University teaches.

Full post as published by Appellate Law and Practice on January 19, 2008 (boomark / email).