Miriam Rozen has perhaps the most comprehensive article to date on the day Michael Richard was executed, hours after the U.S. Supreme Court had agreed to examine the constitutionality of lethal injection through Baze. Her report is, "Out of Time: The Last-Day Legal Battle Over the Execution of Michael Wayne Richard."
Around 8:20 on the evening of Sept. 25, shortly before the state of Texas executed Michael Wayne Richard, the convicted murderer uttered his last words: “I guess this is it.”
But Richard’s death, rather than bringing closure, created a controversy that continues with no end in sight — a controversy involving the presiding judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the Texas Office of the Attorney General, the Office of the Governor and lawyers at the nonprofit Texas Defender Service.
Questions have arisen because Richard — convicted in 1987 of capital murder — was the last man in the nation executed following the U.S. Supreme Court’s Sept. 25 decision to grant writs of certiorari in Baze v. Rees.
In Baze, two condemned men from Kentucky allege that the trio of chemicals used in lethal injections in Kentucky constitute cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Texas and dozens of other states use the same chemicals in lethal injections.
Richard’s execution date was set for Sept. 25, with his death warrant in effect from 6 p.m. — just 10 hours after the high court granted cert in Baze — to midnight. The events of that day — the computer problems that delayed Richard’s defense lawyers’ filings, the CCA’s 5 p.m. closure of its clerk’s office and the Supreme Court’s denial of Richard’s final stay motion — have prompted plenty of finger-pointing. But the story of what happened that day, told from the perspective of key players, shows that Texas executed a man who, given one more day, likely could have persuaded a court to postpone his death.
And:
The news reports that circulated about Keller refusing to keep the CCA clerk’s office open past 5 p.m. on the day Richard faced execution prompted complaints to the State Commission on Judicial Conduct.
Texas Civil Rights Project director James C. Harrington is among the lawyers who have filed complaints against Keller with the State Commission on Judicial Conduct. In an Oct. 11 complaint, Harrington and 19 other attorneys allege that “Judge Keller’s actions denied Michael Richard two constitutional rights, access to the courts and due process, which led to his execution. Her actions also brought the integrity of the Texas judiciary and of her court into disrepute and was a source of scandal to the citizens of the state.”
Harrington also filed a grievance with the Office of the Chief Disciplinary Counsel (OCDC) of the State Bar of Texas in October.
A letter to Keller from the OCDC, dated Nov. 1, states that it dismissed the grievance after determining that the information provided did not allege professional misconduct or a disability.
The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) filed a complaint against Keller with the judicial conduct commission on Oct. 23, says Jack King, the association’s director of public affairs. King says it is the first complaint the NACDL has ever filed against a judge.
Austin solo Keith Hampton says the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association filed a complaint against Keller with the judicial conduct commission on Oct. 25. “We asked them to look at this seriously,” Hampton says.
Seana Willing, the commission’s executive director, declines comment on how many complaints it has received against Keller. “I cannot confirm or deny we’ve received any complaints,” Willing says.
Earlier coverage is here, here, and here. Chuck Lindell of the Austin American-Statesman first broke the news of the controversy, noted in this post October 3.
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