Indiana University law professor available for comment on judicial misconduct case

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Aug. 18, 2009

Charles Geyh

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BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Sharon Keller, presiding judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, will face a special trial for judicial misconduct in the capital punishment case of Michael Wayne Richard. Richard was executed Sept. 25, 2007, after his lawyers worked to get him a reprieve. Because of computer problems, the lawyers asked Keller if the clerk's office could stay open late. She denied the request, saying the office closed at 5 p.m. The appeal never made it to the court.

Charles Geyh, the John F. Kimberling Professor of Law at the Indiana University Maurer School of Law, commented on the case. "Keller's apparent rigidity and indifference is extremely troubling and may warrant discipline," he said. "On the one hand, I do not think that it is appropriate to punish a judge for following the rules -- in this case, rules concerning courthouse hours of operation -- even if doing so may appear callous. On the other hand, in this case, there is evidence to suggest that the court of criminal appeals had made special arrangements to receive the prisoner's petition after hours -- arrangements Judge Keller disregarded or was indifferent to. If that is the case, her conduct reflects badly on her competence, diligence, and ultimately her integrity, and warrants sanction."

Geyh, whose teaching and scholarship focus on the operation of state and federal courts in relation to the political branches of government and the legal profession, serves as co-reporter to the American Bar Association Joint Commission to Evaluate the Model Code of Judicial Conduct. He is the author of When Courts and Congress Collide: The Struggle for Control of America's Judicial System and co-author of Judicial Conduct and Ethics. He can be reached at (812) 855-3210 or by e-mail at cgeyh@indiana.edu.