Poor Sharon Keller, presiding judge of the Court of Criminal Appeals. The woman can’t seem to get a break these days.
First, the State Commission on Judicial Conduct charges her with misconduct related to her infamous claim that the CCA closes at 5pm — a move that blocked death row inmate Michael Richard from having his last appeal heard. Then, when she claimed that the state should have to pay for her attorney fees, because to have to dole it out herself would be “financially ruinous,” that danged Dallas Morning News pointed out that she’d failed to disclose on reporting forms her interest in roughly $2 million in real estate. So now she’s got an ethics beef to deal with. Then, earlier this week, two dozen legal ethicists signed onto a declaration calling for her ouster, in part because of her demonstrated inability to remain impartial on the bench.
Now it looks like she’ll be up for a possible trashing by the public on Monday, when the Texas House Committee on Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence considers House Resolution 480 that calls for her impeachment. Indeed, the resolution’s author, Rep. Lon Burnam, D-Ft. Worth, is hoping the masses will show up to express their displeasure with Killer Keller: “It’s important that the committee be made aware of the public’s desire for impeachment,” Burnham said in a press release.
Let the games begin.
The Committee meets Monday, April 27 after the House adjourns, in Capitol Extension room E2.010.
This article appears in April 17 • 2009.