Prosecutors for the Texas State Commission on Judicial Conduct argue in objections filed Wednesday that Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Presiding Judge Sharon Keller’s “willful and/or persistent conduct” in the case of Michael Richard authorizes the commission to sanction her.
Keller’s conduct on the day the state executed Richard was “clearly inconsistent with the proper performance of her duties” and “cast public discredit on the judiciary and/or on the administration of justice,” Seana Willing, the commission’s executive director, and John J. “Mike” McKetta III, special counsel for the commission’s formal proceedings against Keller, write in their objections. They were responding to the findings of fact (pdf) that 37th District Judge David Berchelmann Jr. of San Antonio, special master in In Re: Honorable Sharon Keller, submitted to the judicial conduct commission on Jan. 20.
