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New York Times: Keller be gone

Reacting to the recent suggestion that Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Presiding Judge Sharon Keller should be impeached for ordering a clerk not to accept a tardy, last-minute death penalty appeal in 2007, the New York Times editorialized this morning that, "If the facts are as reported, Judge Keller should be removed from the bench." According to the editorial board at the Grey Lady, it would require "monumental callousness, as well as a fundamental misunderstanding of justice, for a judge to think that a brief delay in closing a court office should take precedence over a motion that raises constitutional objections to an execution."Unfortunately, not only are the facts as bad as the Times reported, they're actually worse. Judge Keller did indeed tell a clerk to inform defendants, "We close at 5," when computer problems delayed a last-minute filing with an execution looming...continue to full post

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on February 19, 2009 (boomark / email).