Don't count on justice in Texas for Linda Carty, not if Judge Sharon "Killer" Keller has anything to do with her case. Texas is #1 in executions in the U.S.
8-20-09 NYT Votes for Sharon Keller
Editorial
An Unfit Judge
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Published: August 20, 2009
Judge Sharon Keller, the Texas appellate court judge who closed the clerk’s office before a death row inmate could file a last-minute appeal, is fighting to keep her job. At a hearing on Wednesday, she said in a crowded courtroom that if she had it to do again, she would do the same thing. That testimony is further proof of why Judge Keller needs to be removed from the bench.
On Sept. 25, 2007, Michael Richard’s lawyers called the court clerk’s office to say they were running late in delivering the papers for his appeal. The Supreme Court had unexpectedly issued an order in another death penalty case that they believed provided grounds for putting off his execution. When the request to keep the office open reached Judge Keller, she insisted it would close promptly at 5 p.m. The appeal was not filed, and Mr. Richard was executed hours later.
Judge Keller is now facing five counts of judicial misconduct and a possible recommendation that the state judicial system remove her from the bench.
In court this week, Judge Keller lashed out at the condemned man’s lawyers, blaming them for the controversy. She argued that Mr. Richard could still have filed his appeal by seeking out another judge, but that misses the point. She did not follow appropriate procedures. And clearly, under any interpretation of the rules, given that a life lay in the balance, the clerk’s office should have stayed open.
Judge Keller’s profound lack of appreciation for the seriousness of taking a life — and the obligations it places on the state — is similar to the disturbing dissent that Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas delivered this week in the Troy Davis case. They suggested there was no constitutional problem with executing a man who could prove he was innocent.
We believe the death penalty is in all cases wrong. But people who support it should still insist that it be carried out only after a prisoner has been given every reasonable chance to make his case. Judge Keller’s callous indifference in a case where the stakes could not have been higher makes her unfit for office.
8-21-09 Keller is Unrepentant, Would do nothing different.
* Trial of an Unrepentant Sharon Keller Wraps Up - Law Blog - WSJ
The seminal moment in the trial of Criminal Appeals judge Sharon Keller may have come on Wednesday, when she told a crowded courtroom in San Antonio that she would do nothing different if confronted again with a request to keep the clerk office open.
8-18-09 Judge Sharon Keller on Trial
* Killer Keller on Trial
The highest-ranking criminal judge in Texas, the woman who presides over the most active execution chamber in the country, sat at a defense table on Monday to face charges of intentionally denying a condemned man access to the legal system.
Texas Criminal Judge Accused of Misconduct
In this morning's NY Times I found a late entry in the Worst Woman in The World contest whose evil equals and perhaps even surpasses that of the current leader, Ann Coulter.
Gretel C. Kovach in the NYTimes article linked below describes the most recent candidate for the worst woman in the world, Judge Sharon "Killer" Keller chief judge of Texas' highest criminal court.
In 1998, Keller wrote the opinion denying a new trial for Roy Criner, a mentally retarded man convicted of rape and murder, even though DNA tests conducted after his trial showed that it was not his semen in the victim. Keller said, "We can't give new trials to everyone who establishes, after conviction, that they might be innocent. We would have no finality in the criminal justice system, and finality is important."
Of course finality is more important than justice in the justice system!
In one of his few such uncharacteristic moments of mercy, Governor George W. Bush pardoned Mr. Criner.
To Judge Keller's detractors, the Criner decision highlighted what they see as her strong and habitual bias for the prosecution. Texas defense lawyers describe her as a "law-and-order" zealot who rejects most appeals out of hand. Her defenders say she's a hard worker, an "engaging conversationalist" and admire "her calm confidence and the strength of her convictions." She's someone "who never complains, never explains." Her court colleagues have nicknamed her "Mother Superior" because of her devout Roman Catholic faith.
Seventeen months ago, lawyers for a man facing execution sought extra time to file a last minute appeal. Judge Keller refused to delay the closing of her clerk's office past 5p.m. even though late filings are common on the day of a scheduled execution. The man, Michael Richard was put to death a few hours later. Based on that case the State Commission on Judicial Conduct last month charged Judge Keller with incompetence, violating her duties and casting public discredit on the judiciary. Keller could be tried and forced off the bench. Keller was elected to the bench in 1994 in a campaign in which she described herself as "pro-prosecution."
Here's a link to Gretel Kovach's article
Judge Sharon "Killer" Keller
* Judge Sharon "Killer" Keller
In 1998, Judge Keller wrote the opinion rejecting a new trial for Roy Criner, a mentally retarded man convicted of rape and murder, even though DNA tests after his trial showed that it was not his semen in the victim. “We can’t give new trials to ev
Judge Sharon "Killer" Keller, Presiding Judge of Texas' Criminal Court
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Why is Texas #1 in executions?
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline … texas.html
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It's a sticky business sorting out the few who were wrongfully swept up in the criminal justice net from the throngs of convicts proclaiming, "hey man, I'm innocent, too!"
