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Keller Court Accepted After-Hours Filing in 2003

By standdown

That's the title of Chuck Lindell's latest report in today's Austin American-Statesman.  LINK In 2003, the Texas Defender Service filed an after-hours appeal on the day child killer Jose Rivera was to be executed. So why, four years later, was the nonprofit legal group unable to file similar briefs with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on behalf of another client ? death row inmate Michael Richard? Presiding Judge Sharon Keller has made the Rivera filing part of her defense against charges that she improperly closed her court to Richard's lawyers, who had asked the court clerk to accept their stay of execution request after 5 p.m. but said they were rebuffed. Keller argues that the Texas Defender Service should have known that the court never closes on execution night, even if its clerks go home at 5 p...continue to full post

Full post as published by StandDown Texas Project on May 17, 2009 (boomark / email).