The Texas House Committee on Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence announced Tuesday that it will take public testimony on a resolution related to the impeachment of Sharon Keller, Presiding Judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

The resolution, filed by State Rep. Lon Burnam (D-Fort Worth) is likely to spark interesting testimony from both sides of the debate.

From Rep. Burnam’s press release:

“It is important that the committee be made aware of the public’s desire for impeachment,” Mr. Burnam said. “I encourage anyone who wishes to see justice done in this matter to come to room E2.010 in the capitol on Monday afternoon and register ‘for’ House Resolution 480.”

The impeachment resolution is the result of Keller’s actions relating to closing the court’s offices early on September 25, 2007:

The impeachment resolution stems from Judge Keller’s alleged violation of the Court’s practice of remaining open on scheduled execution nights.  On September 25, 2007, the judge instructed court staff to refuse appeal filings from lawyers for death row inmate, Michael Richard.

Richard’s appeal was based on announcements made by the United States Supreme Court the morning of they scheduled execution.  Although Richard was executed that night, the Court of Criminal Appeals (over which Judge Keller presides) later granted two stays of execution based on the same arguments Richard’s lawyers attempted to present.

If passed, HR 480 calls on the House of Representatives to form a committee to investigate Judge Keller for “gross neglect of duty and willing disregard for human life.”   If the House finds cause for impeachment, a trial would then be held in the State Senate.

The State Ethics Commission is also currently investigating Judge Keller; a hearing has been scheduled for August 16th to investigate the judge’s actions in the Richard Case.  In addition, the Ethics Commission is investigating Judge Keller’s omission of 20 million dollars in Dallas area real estate holdings from mandatory disclosure forms filed with the Commission.

If impeached, Keller would be only the second judge in modern Texas history to be removed from office by the Texas Legislature.

The scheduling of the hearing also clears up another question we raised earlier this year relating to how the resolution would advance through the House. Since House rules are silent on the matter, we had hypothesized it was possible that the resolution could go straight to the Calenders Committee, since impeachment is technically a highly privileged matter. Evidently, that isn’t how the House has elected to handle the matter, but at least the resolution will get a hearing.

Depending upon the speed with which the House handles the Burnam resolution, Keller could be impeached by the House and convicted by the Senate well before her August 17 date with the Texas Judicial Conduct Commission. According to our research, the last judicial impeachment the Texas House and Senate handled actually occurred outside the timeframe of a regular legislative session, but not in a special called session called by the Governor.

One big question is whether not Keller or her attorney will appear before the Committee. I’d imagine that Keller’s counsel will keep her far away from the hearing room so as to prevent her from offering testimony that could cause problems in the August hearings, but one never knows.

Technorati Tags Cheryl Johnson, Michael Richards, Sharon Keller, Texas Commission on Judicial Conduct, Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, Texas Republicans