 "Photo: Jordan Smothermon/The Daily Texan")
State Rep. Lon Burnam, D-Fort Worth, called for the impeachment of Sharon Keller, presiding judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, on Monday afternoon at the Capitol.
Burnam is spearheading the calls for impeachment after Keller made the controversial decision in September 2007 to close the doors of her court at 5 p.m., refusing to keep them open an extra 20 minutes to receive a last-minute filing from the attorneys of death row inmate Michael Richard.
The attorneys claim they were having computer issues that prevented them from turning in the motion on time.
Richard was executed just hours after Keller shut her doors, which violated the 49-year-old convicted killer’s Fifth Amendment rights, Burnam said. The execution came just before a nine-month moratorium on executions in Texas while the U.S. Supreme Court considered a challenge to the constitutionality of lethal injection.
“We cannot allow a judge with a self-declared bias against capital defendants to continue deciding execution appeals,” Burnam said. “I believe this represents a gross neglect of duty and willing disregard for human life.”
Burnam said the only alternative to the impeachment process is an 18-month deliberation by the State Commission on Judicial Conduct, which is likely to lead to “a slap on the wrist” rather than immediate removal from office.
“Because death-penalty cases exemplify the state at the zenith of its power over the individual, those who do page these decisions must be held to the highest ethical standards,” Burnam said. “It’s an embarrassment to the state of Texas. It’s an embarrassment to the Republican Party that she represents in this division, and it’s an embarrassment to her legal profession.”
Gloria Rubac, a member of the Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement, applauded Burnam’s comments and said Richard’s execution was wrong.
“It’s unbelievable that somebody in [Keller’s] position would allow a man to be executed when she knew, like I knew, a few hours earlier in the day the U.S. Supreme Court had in effect overturned executions.”
Daniel Hagood, a Dallas defense lawyer who has known Keller since the late 1980s and served as her campaign treasurer when she first ran for office in 1994, said that Burnam would find that there is no basis for impeachment because Richard’s attorneys had every opportunity to stay the execution.
“Nothing prevented those lawyers from filing a motion before five o’clock,” Hagood said. “There’s nothing magical about a hand-written motion. Any competent lawyer would [know that].”
Hagood also said that even if the doors were closed, the attorneys could have handed the motion to any of the nine judges on the court, including Keller.
Burnam said that he would move as quickly as he could with the impeachment of Keller, putting the motion to a vote by the House as soon as he was sure he had enough votes to win.
No one mentioned what Richard did because that was not the issue. The issue is whether or not every person has the right to due process. Judge Keller denied that to Michael Richard. She also lied about her income and net worth, syaing that paying for lawyers would be a financial burden. Would that those seeking justice in her court had that "financial burden." She is worth millions! How many of those who appear before the Court of Criminal Appeals even have thousands? Her arrogance alone should be a crime!Gloria