When Judges Kill
Look out for this lady. If you don't make to the courthouse by 5:00, she'll kill you. Yep:
Presiding Judge Sharon Keller closed the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals offices at the regular time Sept. 25, preventing attorneys for inmate Michael Richard from filing an appeal seeking to halt Richard's execution hours after the U.S. Supreme Court said it would consider a Kentucky case questioning the constitionality of lethal injection.
Richard was executed that night after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to grant him a reprieve.
The Austin American-Statesman reported Tuesday that Keller made the decision to close without consulting any of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals' eight other judges or later informing them about the decision — including Johnson, who was assigned to handle any late motions in Richard's case.
"And I was angry," she said. "If I'm in charge of the execution, I ought to have known about those things, and I ought to have been asked whether I was willing to stay late and accept those filings."
Johnson said her first reaction was "utter dismay."
She's like the rich ladies I see plowing through traffic in their Canyoneros on cell phones. I am afraid they will grind my pedestrian bones under their wheels, and drive away innocently to the next vapid event.
Once again we are reminded of the banality of evil. Please sign the petition to have this taint removed from the seat of justice:
http://myspace.com/judgesharonkiller
www.sharonkiller.com
posted by liquiddaddy @ 10:45 AM
3 Comments:
Members of the public who wish to join in a complaint against Judge Sharon Keller can sign on to a judicial complaint against Keller here. More than 400 people have already signed on.
Last week, a group of 20 prominent lawyers from across Texas filed the first complaint against Keller. Then, the Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association voted to file a second complaint against Keller.
Now, we are asking members of the general public to sign on to this complaint against Keller. It is time for us all to take action to bring back integrity to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. Keller can help the process of bringing back integrity by resigning from the Court.
The Honorable Judge Susan Criss of the 212th Judicial District Court has written on the Burnt Orange Report that she is joining in filing a complaint against Judge Sharon Keller.
When sitting judges begin joining judicial complaints against another judge, you know that there has been a serious breach in judicial ethics. Sharon Keller did not act in an honorable manner by closing the court at 5pm on the day of an execution, but she can do the honorable thing now and resign. I am glad to see a sitting judge, such as the Honorable Judge Susan Criss of the 212 Judicial District Court, join in the criticism of Sharon Keller's shocking action. It feels so good to use the phrase "The Honorable" again when referring to a judge. Sharon Keller is no longer fit to be called "The Honorable"
Quoting from Judge Criss:
"Many of us in the legal community were also stunned to see twenty lawyers publicly announce they were filing a complaint with the Texas Judicial Conduct Commission against Judge Kellar for her actions that day.
While we were stunned we were also proud to see lawyers standing up for the Constitution and for access to justice. Lawyers and elected officials take an oath to protect and defend the Constitution. Too often that oath is interpreted to mean that we should just not violate the Constitution ourselves. That oath means so much more than that. Twenty lawyers reminded Texas and the rest of the nation and the world just what is required by those of us who swear to protect and defend the Constitution.
That is why other groups and individuals are joining in that complaint this week. I am joining in it. The Code of Judicial Conduct requires judges to report activity by other judges that violates the Code. Behavior that diminishes public confidence in the justice system violates the Code.
During the Watergate hearings Barbara Jordan said. "My faith in the Constitution is complete. I will not stand by and be an idle spectator in the diminution, the subversion, the destruction of the Constitution."
Sir,
Thank you for your comment and the valuable information for those who are interested in joining the campaign to discipline Judge Keller.
A sad fact these days is that people like her have a tremendous future in the Bush administration.
LD
Why am I not surprised to learn that she hails from that beacon for justice, the Dallas county DA’s office. Justice Keller is just following the GOP party line, that the courts need not concern themselves with the question of guilt or innocence, but merely see that the forms are adhered to, as in cases where exonerating evidence surfaces too late to save a defendant!
Once again, the blood on the hands trickles down to us, John Q. Public, who is too busy watching Dancing with the Stars, or Monday through Sunday Night Football to bother casting an informed vote. Hell, in recent years our supposed opposition party has thrown up its hands and not even fielded a candidate in some of these races.
And finally, this is another case where we need to re-write the state constitution to bring our foundering system of government out of the eighteenth century. Texas consumers (notice that I didn’t say citizens?) have no place electing Judges they know or care little about.
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