"Ethics Experts Claim CCA Presiding Judge Sharon Keller Should Go," is Mary Alice Robbins' report for Texas Lawyer.
A group of 24 judicial ethics experts from around the nation write in a declaration received today by the State Commission on Judicial Conduct that Sharon Keller, presiding judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, should be removed from the bench.
In their “Ethics Experts’ Declaration,” the authors — including University of Houston Law Center professor Robert Schuwerk, co-author of the handbook “Texas Lawyer and Judicial Ethics 2006-2007,” and Houston solo Steven Smoot, a member of the Association of Professional Responsibility Lawyers and the Texas Center for Legal Ethics and Responsibility — allege Keller violated judicial ethics under the Texas Code of Judicial Conduct, including her obligation to provide litigants due process of law. In the declaration, the experts allege Keller violated judicial ethics by deciding cases “despite her lack of impartiality and the appearance of impartiality, which required her to recuse herself.”
The experts based their opinion on Keller’s published statements that she is a “prosecution-oriented person” and her opinions in cases, according to the declaration. Chicago solo Robert P. Cummins, a former chairman of the Illinois Judicial Inquiry Board, sent the declaration to the State Commission on Judicial Conduct. Cummins says in an interview that if a judge commits himself or herself to holding a position, regardless of the facts in a case, that is a reason for recusal. “If I had a judge say to me, ‘Mr. Cummins, I am looking at this case from a prosecutorial view point,’ I’d say, ‘I’m in trouble,’ ” he says.
The experts also take issue with Keller’s financial reporting and her attempt to obtain money for her defense from the state of Texas, which they allege violate judicial canons.
“In her financial disclosure statements, Judge Keller repeatedly omitted reference to her ownership interest in several residential and commercial properties that could be valued close to $2,000,000,” the experts state in their declaration. In a footnote, the experts cite The Dallas Morning News’ March 30 article alleging that Keller failed to disclose $2 million in real estate assets on her campaign financial reports to the Texas Ethics Commission.
On Feb. 19, the judicial conduct commission issued its Notice of Formal Proceedings in In Re: Honorable Sharon Keller, alleging that Keller engaged in “willful and persistent” conduct in failing to follow the CCA’s execution-day procedures on Sept. 25, 2007, the day the state executed convicted killer Michael Richard. The commission alleges in its notice that Keller refused to keep the CCA open past 5 p.m. on the day of Richard’s execution so that his attorneys could file a motion for stay and writ of prohibition.
In the Chicago Law Bulletin, John Flynn Rooney writes, "Lawyer, law students here weigh in on Texas judge's disciplinary case."
Five Loyola University School of Law students also worked on the Ethics Experts' Declaration filed in the matter of Judge Sharon Keller, under the supervision of Robert P. Cummins, who teaches a professionalism class at
Loyola.
The students worked with Cummins on an initial draft of the declaration based upon their research efforts, which included looking into the underlying facts in the case, Cummins said Tuesday. The students also performed legal research and participated in conference calls with a number of judicial ethics experts, he added.
The students are Erica Greene, Elizabeth Cebula, Michael Baniak, Christopher Blum and Nicholas Morjal.
In February, the Texas Commission on Judicial Conduct filed a complaint against Keller, presiding judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, that could lead to her removal from office.
Convicted killer Michael Richard was put to death by lethal injection on Sept. 25, 2007, after Keller ordered a clerk to close the court's office promptly at 5 p.m. Lawyers for Richard had asked that the office stay open an extra 20 minutes to permit a late appeal.
''In brief, our opinion is that Judge Sharon Keller has violated judicial ethics under the Texas Code of Judicial Conduct, which includes her obligation to provide litigants due process of law,'' states the Ethics Experts' Declaration submitted by Cummins and 23 other experts in the field of judicial ethics and disciplinary enforcement. ''These violations are sufficiently serious to require that Judge Keller be removed from the bench, pursuant to the Texas Constitution.''
Cummins, a former chair of the Illinois Judicial Inquiry Board, and Monroe H. Freedman, a professor at Hofstra Law School, took the lead in drafting the declaration. The document was shipped to Texas on Monday evening, Cummins said.
Diane Jennings has updated her Dallas Morning News Crime blog post with, "Update: Lawyer responds to ethicists in Keller case."
Chip Babcock, attorney for Judge Sharon Keller said this afternoon he's surprised that a group of legal ethicists has called for the judge's removal from office in a declaration sent to the State Commission on Judicial Conduct.
"As ethicists I would have thought they would abide by the first rule of their profession which is to look at both sides of the story," he says. "And it appears from this document that they have only looked at the allegations of the Commission on Judicial Conduct and media reports but have ignored the rather detailed denials that Judge Keller made in response."
Keller is facing a hearing on charges of misconduct before the commission later this summer.
Babcock said he is so curious about the unusual statement he's called Mike Tigar at Duke, whose name is on the document, and is planning to call Robert Schuwerk at the University of Houston.
Earlier coverage begins with this post.
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