Legal News

Texas?s Top Criminal Judge Faces Possible Impeachment Inquiry

By Nathan Koppel

Sharon Keller, the highest ranking criminal judge in Texas, is facing a bid by the Texas state legislature to remove her from office.

Yesterday, Texas state legislator Lon Burnam filed a resolution calling for the state House of Representatives to consider impeaching her in light of her handling of a case involving a death-row inmate named Michael Richard. Keller, pictured, the conservative presiding judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, has long been viewed by critics as too quick to affirm death-penalty verdicts.

On Sept 25, 2007, Richard sought to appeal his death sentence to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, following the Supreme Court’s decision that day to consider the constitutionality of lethal injection.

But Keller refused to keep the court open after 5:00 pm to allow Richard’s counsel to have the time to prepare the appeal. Richard was executed later that day.

Burnam’s resolution calls for the Texas legislature to form a committee to investigate whether Keller should be impeached over the matter. Here’s an article by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Burnam told the newspaper that he is incensed because the State Commission on Judicial Conduct did not respond to his request that it investigate Keller’s handling of the Richard case. “It’s one thing for a banker to close shop at 5 o’clock sharp,” Burnam said. “But a public official who stands between a human being and the death chamber must be held to a higher standard.”

The Star-Telegram could not reach Keller, but she has said that she was just following the court’s long-standing practice to close on time.

Photo: AP

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on February 17, 2009 (boomark / email).