Sharon Keller is being villified by the media, both in the United States and abroad. She has been condemned by hundreds of lawyers, some demanding that she should lose her job. A "grieving widow" has sued her for causing the death of a beloved husband.
Who is Sharon Keller? What crime did she commit? You would think that she is a cold-blooded serial killer, what with all the scorn being heaped upon her. Well, Keller is the Presiding Judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, that state's highest appellate court for criminal cases. The Houston Chronicle, in an editorial, has accused her of "outrageous behavior" and called for the Commission on Judicial Conduct to take "strong action to sanciton Judge Keller for her reckless abuse of the legal system."
On September 25, 2007, Judge Keller refused to keep the court clerk's office open past the regular 5 PM closing time. That prevented the attorneys for death row inmate Michael Richard from filing a last-minute appeal to stop his execution which was scheduled for 6 PM that evening. The execution was carried out, even though three of the court's nine judges had remained in the court to accept the appeal.
Richard's appeal would have requested a stay of execution until the U.S. Supreme Court rules next summer on a Kentucky case which claims that lethal injections cause the condemned excruciating pain, thereby constituting cruel and unusual punishment. Richard's excecution was this country's last because the Supreme Court and most states have halted executions, pending next summer's ruling.
All those - the media, sanctimonious lawyers, death penalty abolitionists, and assorted do-gooders - who are calling for Keller's scalp are screaming that Richard would still be alive had she kept the court clerk's office open past 5 PM. And then there is Marsha Richard, the late Michael's widow, one of many death row groupies across the country who decide to - God only knows why - marry an inmate convicted of murder and awaiting execution. The poor widow, who met and married her husband 15 years after his arrival on death row, is soothing her "grief" by filing a wrongful death suit against Judge Keller.
Of course, I realize that Richard would still be alive if Keller had not blocked his appeal. So, please pardon me while I get a hanky to wipe off the tears streaming down my cheeks. Completely overlooked in all the hoopla is the fact that Michael Richard has been sitting on death row for over 20 years after having been convicted and sentenced to death twice, not just once, for a brutal murder and rape.
In 1986, Michael Richard raped and fatally shot Marguerite Dixon, 53, a nurse and mother of seven, inside her home in Hockley, a small community ouside of Houston. After murdering Dixon, he took off with two TV sets and her van. Oh, by the way, he raped and murdered Dixon barely eight weeks after he had been released from a second prison term. With that knowledge, we can all now join Marsha, the grieving widow, in weeping over the tragedy of poor old Michael's early demise.
In blocking Richard's appeal, Sharon Keller is guilty only of failing to use her best judgement. Considering that this scumbag had been residing on death row over 20 years for bruattly raping and murdering an innocent victim, does she really deserve the villification being heaped upon her? Does she really deserve to be removed from office? My answer to both of those questions is a resounding "no". Come on, give Judge Keller a break!
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