Please make plans now to be in Austin on August 17 to attend the trial of Sharon “Killer” Keller.

In November 2007, we held a protest on the sidewalk outside of Keller’s million dollar home in Austin. Watch video here and below. We filed an official complaint against Keller with the State Commission on Judical Conduct that was signed by about 1,900 people who were outraged at Keller’s unethical behavior.

Watch video of us delivering a copy of the complaint to the Court of Criminal Appeals. The video includes a statement by the sister of Michael Richard, the person for whom Keller refused to accept the appeal.

Last week, it was reported that Keller left off millions of dollars of assets on her required reports to the Texas Ethics Commmission and at the same time she is asking the state to pay her legal expenses to defend herself against misconduct charges when she refused to keep the Court of Criminal Appeals open long enough to allow a person set for execution on Sept 25, 2007 to file an appeal that day after the U.S. Supreme Court had earlier in the day accepted a case that placed a moratorium on executions for more than half a year.

From the Statesman:

The trial into charges that Sharon Keller violated her duty as head of the state’s highest criminal court will begin Aug. 17.

The trial, which could last a week or longer, will be in Austin in a location to be determined, said Seana Willing, executive director of the State Commission on Judicial Conduct, which charged Keller with improperly closing her court to an after-hours appeal by death row inmate Michael Richard in 2007.

“Now it’s up to us to find a location to accommodate a large group of people, because at least for the first day or so, I imagine the trial will be heavily attended,” Willing said today.

Next, the Texas Supreme Court will appoint a judge to act as special master to run the trial. The special master will issue findings about whether Keller should be exonerated, publicly reprimanded or removed from office.

The State Commission on Judicial Conduct can vote to exonerate or reprimand Keller. A vote to oust Keller from office would be reviewed by a special panel of seven appellate court judges.

The State Commission on Judicial Conduct has set August 17, 2009 as the date for the formal hearing before the Special Master to be appointed by the Supreme Court of Texas in the Sharon Keller case.

See the order (pdf)

Our project Abolish the Death Penalty on Amazee just won the Amazee Facebook Rally and the prize of $1,000!

Thank you to all our friends and supporters who added the project to their Facebook profiles!

And thank you to the people who founded and run Amazee.com. Your generosity in donating prize money to help groups working to change and improve the world is greatly appreciated.

The project that got the most people to add the project to their facebook profile won $1,000, which we are going to use towards the campaign to pass the bill in the Texas Legislature to end the death penalty under the Law of Parties.

The Law of Parties allows people to be sentenced to death even though they did not kill anyone. Kenneth Foster, Jeff Wood and others were sentenced to death under the Law of Parties, although they never killed anyone or intended anyone to be killed.

Go to the Abolish the Death Penalty project on Amazee and add it to your Facebook profile. You could help us win $1,000 to use against the death penalty.

http://www.amazee.com/abolish-death-penalty

Go to the link above and click on the blue button that says “Add to Facebook” on the right side of the page.

This contest ends on April 5. We are currently in second plase, 23 people behind first place. The project that has the most people who add the project to their facebook profile wins $1,000, which we will use towards the campaign to pass the bill to end the death penalty under the Law of Parties.

The Law of Parties allows people to be sentenced to death even though they did not kill anyone. Kenneth Foster, Jeff Wood and others were sentenced to death under the Law of Parties.

EDITORIAL: Disclosure: Appeals judge already under fire apparently hid assets
The Lufkin Daily News
Thursday, April 02, 2009

Sharon Keller, presiding judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, is already battling ethics charges because she refused to work past 5 p.m. as attorneys for a condemned man tried to stop his 2007 execution. The lawyers said a computer breakdown had slowed their efforts to file a new appeal and asked for 20 extra minutes. Keller, who had gone home to meet a repairman, when contacted by her clerk, declined to return to work. Inmate Michael Richard was executed a few hours later.

Keller has been roundly criticized, and rightly so, for refusing to stay past closing time to consider Richard’s last-minute appeal. It has been standard procedure in the past for judges to stay late. As a result, the Texas Commission on Judicial Conduct has initiated proceedings against Keller that could result in her being removed from office.

Keller is considered one of the most avid advocates of using the death penalty. In 1998, she wrote an opinion rejecting a new trial for a mentally retarded man who had been cleared after his conviction of rape and murder charges by DNA evidence. She then told the “Frontline” host, “We can’t give new trials to everyone who establishes, after conviction, that they might be innocent. We have no finality in the criminal justice system, and finality is important.”

Maybe we’re just mixed up, but we think it’s more important that we don’t send innocent people to prison, or worse, to the death chamber, than having “finality.”

Now the Dallas Morning News has reported that Keller failed to disclose nearly $2 million in real estate holdings. Though required by the Texas Ethics Commission, the newspaper reported she didn’t list her ownership in seven residential and commercial properties in the Dallas-Fort Worth area — including two homes in her family’s compound.

It would be stretching the imagination to think she just “forgot” about owning two homes together worth about $1 million.

There is a reason the state requires judges and all other state officeholders to disclose their personal finances. The public has a right to know of any potential conflicts of interest. It appears Keller purposely omitted listing these properties. Why isn’t known, since she refuses to comment.

We were already of the opinion that Keller should either resign or be removed from the court. The latest report that she has not disclosed a couple million bucks in assets as required by law only strengthens that view.

Texans deserve better on their court. We urge Keller to save taxpayer money and help restore faith in the state’s highest criminal appeals court by resigning.