Dig Deeper Texas

Court adopts written procedures for death penalty appeals | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

The judge who prevented a convicted killer from making a last-minute appeal by not extending office hours apparently violated a Texas Court of Criminal Appeals unwritten policy by making the decision when the case wasn’t assigned to her.

Judge Sharon Keller said the court has adopted written policies since the Sept. 25 execution of Michael Richard that call for a condemned inmate’s appeals to go first to the judge assigned to the case.

Now I’m sure poor Judge Keller doesn’t think she did anything wrong. In fact, she was probably just trying do a favor for a fellow colleague by denying the appeal for her.

But she wasn’t elected to do her colleague’s job. Maybe the other justices think it’s okay for Keller to act for the rest of them. I guess it would make their jobs a bit easier. And Keller doesn’t seem to lack the conviction that she should be the one making the decisions since she knows what’s best for everyone. Why bother with eight other judges when she can make all the decisions herself?

Unfortunately, Keller is up for election until 2012 which means that by then, most people will have forgotten about the issue, even her colleagues. Too bad it’s not coming up since it looks like it takes less than $20,000 to win the election. According to the Texas Ethics Commission, her biggest expense was $11,000 for postage paid for by John Doner and Associates. The expenditure is marked as “Reimbursement from political contributions intended.” If it’s never repaid, does that make it a contribution then?

Technorati Tags: Sharon Keller, Texas, State Appeals Court, Death Penalty appeals

Filed under: Death Penalty appeals, Sharon Keller, State Appeals Court, texas