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An update on the trial of Judge Keller

By Karl R. Keys, Esq.

Judge Sharon Keller faces judicial misconduct charges after she refused to keep the Clerk’s office open  to accept a last-minute appeal in a capital case, that of Michael Wayne Richard, where counsel sought to file after hours due to both computer problems and the grant of certiorari in another capital case the same day as the scheduled execution.  On Tuesday the prosecution (also called an examiner in these type of proceedings) continued to lay out its case.  The central theory of the examiner is that “[w]hen the government has a death penalty, it is essential that there be not the perception but the reality that it is administered error-free.”  The court’s after hours filing policy in execution cases, the Commission on Judicial Conduct proffers, was violated when Judge Keller, the Presiding Judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, ordered the Clerk’s office to inform the condemned’s lawyers on the scheduled day of execution...continue to full post

Full post as published by Capital Defense Weekly on August 19, 2009 (boomark / email).