Judge Sharon Keller reprimanded for conduct related to 2007 stay of execution filing

The Commission on Judicial Conduct issued a "public warning" to Judge Sharon Keller (left) on Friday for instructing the court clerk to close his office at 5 p.m. even though attorneys for a condemned inmate were rushing to file papers requesting a stay of his execution. Keller, the presiding judge on the Court of Criminal Appeals, has fought allegations that she failed in her duties for almost three years. A special judge that heard her case last year said that she should not be reprimanded.

But the Judicial Conduct committee heard an appeal of that decision last month and issued a different decision, saying Keller failed to perform her duties, maintain open access to the courts and that her actions constituted a "willful or persistent conduct that casts public discredit on the judiciary or the administration of justice."

The case involves the execution of Michael Richard who was executed in September 2007. The morning of his scheduled execution, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear a case that questioned the constitutionality of the drug combinations used in lethal injections.

Richard's attorneys, according to testimony, were disorganized and came late to the decision to request a stay based on lethal injections – an argument that was successful in postponing the executions of other capital offenders pending the Supreme Court decision.

When an assistant called the Court of Criminal Appeals and asked it to stay open late, a call went to Keller asking whether the clerk should comply. She answered that the office closes at 5 p.m.

Keller was not the judge assigned to wait for appeals on the Richard case, and the judicial commission cited the fact that she failed to inform her staff that they should contact the judge on duty. The court had a set procedure for last-minute execution filings that proscribed all communications about the case should be referred to the duty judge.

The court staff and Keller also did not communicate to the defense lawyers that they could file their appeal after hours directly with the duty judge or the court's general counsel. Keller's attorney pointed out that the defense attorneys in the Richard case had filed papers after-hours before and should have known the procedures.

Keller can still appeal the commission's sanction, which was one of the least severe available to the commission. The commission can go so far as to remove a judge from the bench.

Source: Dallas Morning News, July 17, 2010

Texas Judge Reprimanded in Death Row Case

A judicial panel on Friday reprimanded a Texas judge who declined to keep the courthouse open for a last-minute appeal from a death row inmate.

Judge Sharon Keller, the state’s highest-ranking criminal judge, received a public warning from the State Commission on Judicial Conduct for "willful or persistent misconduct" that "casts public discredit on the judiciary."

On Sept. 25, 2007, when lawyers for Michael W. Richard asked the court to stay open to receive an appeal, Judge Keller reportedly told the clerk, "We close at 5 p.m." Mr. Richard, who had been convicted of rape and murder, was executed that night.

Mr. Richard's appeal was based on an action by the United States Supreme Court that effectively suspended executions for several months.

Judge Keller’s lawyer, Chip Babcock, argued that the fault lay with the defense lawyers, who did not contact other judges directly.

Judge David A. Berchelmann, who presided over a separate ethics hearing in 2009, wrote that Judge Keller's conduct "was not exemplary." But he also recommended that she be exonerated and found fault with the defense lawyers as well.

On Friday, Mr. Babcock issued a statement saying that his client was "disappointed and shocked" that the commission disregarded Judge Berchelmann's findings and that she would challenge the decision.

Source: The New York Times, July 17, 2010

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