Quick update: Here's a link to a Texas Kaos post on this subject, including a copy of the announcement of the charges filed against Judge Keller to the author: Formal Proceedings Against Sharon Keller.
I recently wrote about the impeachment resolution filed to start an investigation into Presiding Judge Keller of the Criminal Courts of Appeal in Texas Courts: Good News and Bad News. In addition to the possibility of an impeachment proceeding, the State Commission on Judicial Conduct has filed ethics charges against her for failing to follow the procedural rules of the CCA. The CCA operates on a system of rotating duty judges, whereby the on duty judge is responsible to consider any last minute appeals, such as in the execution of Michael Richard, the case at the center of the Keller controversy (Richard was appealing based on Supreme Court review of lethal injection, which froze executions nationwide for several months until they ruled on the case). Rather than referring the decision to the duty judge, Judge Cheryl Johnson, Judge Keller made the decision herself. You can get more detail on the story at the Austin American Statesman's Judge's Ethics Case May Hinge on Phone Calls:
Keller's unilateral refusal ignored Court of Criminal Appeals rules on death row appeals and, according to charges filed Thursday by the State Commission on Judicial Conduct, violated ethics rules by:
• Failing to ensure proper access to the legal system.
• Eroding public confidence in the fairness of judges.
Beyond revealing dysfunction within the normally secretive nine-member court, the charges contained previously unknown information about events leading to Richard's execution on Sept. 25, 2007 — including details of the two key phone conversations involving Keller.
Comments