The Texas House Committee on Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence will hear public testimony in Austin on Monday, April 27, on HR 480 by Rep Lon Burnam, regarding whether to begin the impeachment of Sharon Keller, presiding Judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. Please go to the Capitol on Monday afternoon and sign a Witness Affirmation form in support of impeaching Keller. The hearing is in room E2.010. It will start after adjournment of the House, probably around 1 PM.
On November 28, 2008, I wrote a post on Burnt Orange Report saying, "When the Texas Legislature convenes in January, it should take action to remove Sharon Keller from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals for willful neglect of duty." Thank you to Rep Burnam for filing the impeachment resolution.
It is very important that the House impeaches Keller, because if she is impeached, then she would be automatically suspended from office pending the outcome of her trial in the Senate. Keller needs to be suspended or completely removed from office as soon as possible. Her trial on misconduct charges by the State Commission on Judicial Conduct does not begin until August. Every day that Keller remains on the Court ruling on cases, she continues to bring discredit on the Texas judiciary.
Keller has violated the public trust placed in her to dispense justice fairly and impartially. No accused can stand before the Court of Criminal Appeals and expect justice from Keller, who has said that she is "pro-prosecution". You can read more about Keller's bias and lack of impartiality in the letter to the State Commission on Judicial Conduct by a group of leading national experts on legal ethics.
Keller broke the rules of her own court when she refused to accept an appeal 20 minutes after 5 PM from a person on the day set for his execution. In addition, she has asked the people of Texas to pay for her legal expenses to defend herself while she failed to report millions of dollars in assets to the Texas Ethics Commission.
Rep Burnam will hold a press conference to discuss the impeachment of Judge Sharon Keller in the Speaker's Committee Room in the Capitol (2W.6) on Monday at 12 PM or upon adjournment of the House.
According to his press release:
House Resolution 480 accuses Judge Keller of "neglect of duty" for declining to keep her office open past 5 pm to receive the final pleadings of condemned inmate, Michael Richard, on September 25, 2007.
Richard's appeal was based on announcements made by the United States Supreme Court the morning of the scheduled execution. Although Richard was executed that night, the Court of Criminal Appeals (over which Judge Keller presides) later granted two stays of execution based on the same arguments Richard's lawyers attempted to present.
If passed, HR 480 calls on the House of Representatives to form a committee to investigate Judge Keller for "gross neglect of duty and willing disregard for human life." If the House finds cause for impeachment, a trial would then be held in the State Senate.
"It's one thing for a banker to close shop at five o'clock sharp," said Rep. Lon Burnam, the principal author of the resolution. "But a public official who stands between a human being and the death chamber must be held to a higher standard.
I have set up a petition calling for Keller's removal on SharonKiller.com where people can leave comments about how they feel about her. In 2007, about 1900 people signed on to a judicial complaint I sent to the Commission.
The Houston Chronicle's R.G. Ratcliffe wrote an article on Dec 13, 2007 titled "Judge in death case violated policies: Keller, who shut out appeal, says new written rules reflect unwritten ones on that day". He wrote that "Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Presiding Judge Sharon Keller apparently violated court policies for handling death penalty cases when she closed the court clerk's doors on Michael Richard's efforts to file a last-minute appeal before his execution."
Reading the entire text of the policies makes it very clear that Keller violated the rules by not contacting the assigned duty judge about the request by Richard's lawyers to file a late appeal.
I sent a copy to the State Commission on Judicial Conduct of Keller's letter to Ratcliffe and of the document "Execution-day Procedures".
Read the policies and judge for yourselves if she violated them. Here is a link to a pdf of the document I received from the Court. The newly written down text of the unwritten policies in effect on Sept 25, 2007 is below:
Execution-day Procedures
A designated judge will be assigned to be in charge of each scheduled execution. Generally, judges will be assigned in rotating seniority order by the general counsel. Exceptions in order of assignment will be made for prior involvement in the death-row inmate's case as trial judge, prosecutor, or defense counsel, or for recusal. Judges may also trade assignments, with notice to all other judges and general counsel, for other good cause such as anticipated absence from court on the day of execution. Unless the Court has been informed by defense counsel that no pleadings will be filed, or pleadings have been filed and ruled on, general counsel shall be present at the Court on the date of the scheduled execution until the time of execution has passed. The assigned judge shall be present at the Court, or immediately available, on the date of the scheduled execution until the time of execution has passed. Support staff may be requested to remain, also, as needed.
All communications regarding the scheduled execution shall first be referred to the assigned judge. The term "communications" includes pleadings, telephone calls, faxes, emails, and any other means of communication with the Court. The assigned judge may call a special conference or gather votes by telephone, email, fax, or other form of communication.
If the communication includes a request for stay of execution, the assigned judge shall contact, by any reasonable means, the other members of the Court and request a vote on the motion to stay. Non-assigned judges will provide to the assigned judge an adequate means of contact. "Reasonable means" includes calling a special conference and contact by electronic communication.
Several newspapers have also called for Keller to be removed from office, including the Houston Chronicle, which wrote on Oct 15, 2007:
Judge Keller let her personal bias in favor of the death penalty trample the right of now-executed prisoner Michael Richard to access the courts and have due process. In doing so, she abdicated her role as the state's chief criminal justice to become its chief executioner.
The Chronicle again called for Keller's removal on February 25, 2009, writing that Keller's "deformed ethical compass makes her unfit to judge".
The New York Times wrote in an editorial, "If the facts are as reported, Judge Keller should be removed from the bench.".