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August 18, 2009

Texas Judge on Trial for Refusing to Allow Death Row Appeal
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In another closely watched death penalty case, a judge in Texas is on
trial for refusing to allow lawyers for a death row prisoner to lodge a
last-minute appeal. The State Judicial Commission in Texas has charged
Judge Sharon Keller with failing to follow the court’s execution day
procedures in the case of death row prisoner Michael Wayne Richard and
denying Richard access to open courts and the right to be heard. On the
day of Richard’s scheduled execution in 2007, Judge Keller refused to
allow the court clerk’s office to stay open a few minutes past 5:00 p.m.
to allow Richard’s attorneys to file emergency paperwork in light of a
Supreme Court decision that had come down that afternoon. Richard was
executed that night.



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