Judge Says Refusing Late Capital Appeal Didn't Break Court Rules
The presiding judge of Texas’ highest criminal court testified in her misconduct trial on Tuesday that she didn’t violate court rules when she refused to keep the court open past its 5 p.m. deadline to accept a capital appeal from an inmate scheduled to die that evening.
Judge Sharon Keller said her decision was a “close call” but she was not required to forward the request to the judge on call, the Austin American-Statesman reports. The reason: The late-filing request was an administrative matter, rather than a question on the merits.
Keller also said she was not told that the appeal was late because the lawyers filing it were having computer problems, the Associated Press reports. Lawyers for the inmate, Michael Richard, were scrambling because the U.S. Supreme Court had accepted a case earlier in the day challenging the constitutionality of a three-drug lethal injection cocktail.
”I didn’t know they were having trouble,” Keller said. ”I knew they wanted us to stay after and I knew they weren’t ready to file.”
Keller’s testimony resumes today, the Associated Press reports in a separate story.
