Legal Commentary

Judge Who Closed Courthouse Doors Faces Discipline

By TChris

You may recall the shameful work of Judge Sharon Keller, the appellate judge in Texas who (without consulting her colleagues) refused to keep the courthouse doors open for 20 minutes past closing time to accept a petition for a stay of execution. The stay request was based on the Supreme Court's decision to consider the constitutionality of executions carried out by lethal injection. The Supreme Court granted a stay request to a different Texas inmate two days later, but Michael Richards wasn't so lucky. Thanks to Judge Keller, he was killed without having a chance to have his stay request heard.

In addition to being condemned by lawyers and her judicial colleagues, Judge Keller's outrageous behavior caught the attention of the State Commission on Judicial Conduct, which brought five charges against her. [more ...]

They included a “willing and persistent failure to follow [Court of Criminal Appeals] execution-day procedures” and a denial of an “open court or the right to heard according to law.” In perhaps the most damning professional charge yet, the commission found that Judge Keller’s actions “[casted] public discredit on the judiciary.”

If the Commission (after a public hearing) determines that the charges have merit, it can either censure the judge or recommend that the Texas Supreme Court remove her from office.

While private hearings with the Commission of Judicial Conduct are the norm in these cases, the executive director of the committee, Seana Willing, told the Dallas Morning News that a public hearing would provide the judge the “opportunity for due process, to cross-examine and confront witnesses” brought against her.

Judge Keller should be so lucky as to have the justice system work — at least for her. For all the anger at the judge’s actions, Texans can take pride in knowing that, whichever state entity decides her fate, she will be afforded the due process of law which every U.S. citizen is entitled to (and which she denied Richard).

Full post as published by TalkLeft on February 25, 2009 (boomark / email).