Attorneys’ Organization Files Judicial Conduct Complaint Against Texas Appeals Judge

The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) has filed a judi­cial com­plaint against the Presiding Judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, Sharon Keller (pic­tured), the first time the group says it has ever filed a com­plaint against a judge. NACDL has asked the Texas Commission on Judicial Conduct to review Judge Keller’s deci­sion to turn away the last appeal of a death row inmate because the rushed fil­ing was sub­mit­ted past the court’s 5 p.m. clos­ing time. Attorneys for Michael Richard, who was exe­cut­ed on the same day the U.S. Supreme Court announced it would review the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of lethal injec­tion prac­tices, said they were expe­ri­enc­ing com­put­er prob­lems as they pre­pared their clien­t’s lethal injec­tion-based appeal just hours before Richard’s exe­cu­tion. The appeal was being filed right after attor­neys had learend that the Supreme Court would take up the issue. They asked Judge Keller for 20 more min­utes to deliv­er their appeal to Austin because the court does not accept com­put­er fil­ings. They were told, ​“We close at 5.” Without a rul­ing from the state court, the lawyers could not prop­er­ly appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court to block the exe­cu­tion. At least 150 attor­neys have filed sim­i­lar com­plaints against Judge Keller with the State Commission on Judicial Conduct, which can impose sanc­tions rang­ing from addi­tion­al edu­ca­tion to sus­pen­sion or a trial.

More than 300 lawyers — includ­ing two for­mer Texas Supreme Court jus­tices and oth­er for­mer judges, the head of the Texas Commission for Lawyer Discipline and part­ners of lead­ing Texas law firms — have signed a peti­tion call­ing for the court to accept elec­tron­ic fil­ings in the future.

Two days after Richard’s exe­cu­tion, the U.S. Supreme Court blocked anoth­er lethal injec­tion in Texas after attor­neys had filed, and lost, an appeal to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. The fol­low­ing exe­cu­tion date in Texas was stayed by the state court. There have been no exe­cu­tions in the coun­try since Michael Richard was exe­cut­ed in Texas.
(New York Times, October 25, 2007). See Lethal Injection and Arbitrariness.