Rhino
10-25-2007, 01:22 PM
Oct 23, 9:15 PM EDT
Texas Judge Known for Toughness on Crime
By APRIL CASTRO
Associated Press Writer
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- The path to the nation's busiest death chamber winds through a court of last resort where the presiding judge recently refused to keep her office open past 5 p.m. to accept a last-minute appeal from an inmate about to be executed.
Judge Sharon Keller's relentless tough-on-crime approach earned her the nickname "Killer Keller," and condemned prisoners in Texas know she is unlikely to spare them from a lethal injection.
Keller, 54, cultivates her reputation, distributing campaign literature showing a shadowy figure behind bars and the headline: "He won't be voting for Judge Sharon Keller."
Keller is "clearly not the friend of the criminal defendant, and she is active and aggressive in espousing her view of the law, which is very often - almost always - very pleasing to the prosecutors and not to the defense lawyers," said John Wright, a Huntsville defense attorney who has represented death-row clients before the state Court of Criminal Appeals.
On the night Keller refused to keep the court open, Michael Richard's lawyers had asked to file a last-minute appeal. They appealed through the federal system instead, and the Supreme Court turned down his case. Richard was put to death at 9:30 p.m. Sept. 25 for the rape and murder of a Houston-area woman....http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/T/TOUGH_TEXAS_JUDGE?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US
We need more like her.
Texas Judge Known for Toughness on Crime
By APRIL CASTRO
Associated Press Writer
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- The path to the nation's busiest death chamber winds through a court of last resort where the presiding judge recently refused to keep her office open past 5 p.m. to accept a last-minute appeal from an inmate about to be executed.
Judge Sharon Keller's relentless tough-on-crime approach earned her the nickname "Killer Keller," and condemned prisoners in Texas know she is unlikely to spare them from a lethal injection.
Keller, 54, cultivates her reputation, distributing campaign literature showing a shadowy figure behind bars and the headline: "He won't be voting for Judge Sharon Keller."
Keller is "clearly not the friend of the criminal defendant, and she is active and aggressive in espousing her view of the law, which is very often - almost always - very pleasing to the prosecutors and not to the defense lawyers," said John Wright, a Huntsville defense attorney who has represented death-row clients before the state Court of Criminal Appeals.
On the night Keller refused to keep the court open, Michael Richard's lawyers had asked to file a last-minute appeal. They appealed through the federal system instead, and the Supreme Court turned down his case. Richard was put to death at 9:30 p.m. Sept. 25 for the rape and murder of a Houston-area woman....http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/T/TOUGH_TEXAS_JUDGE?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US
We need more like her.