Prosecutors: Texas judge who refused to keep court open for death row appeal must be punished

Prosecutors: death row judge deserves punishment

SAN ANTONIO — Prosecutors who put an embattled Texas judge on trial for refusing to keep her court open to hear a death row inmate’s final appeal say she still deserves punishment.

Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Presiding Judge Sharon Keller faces five charges of judicial misconduct for apparently denying twice-convicted killer Michael Wayne Richard a last-minute appeal by closing her court at 5 p.m. on Sept. 25, 2007. Richard was executed later that that day.

Judge David Berchelmann, who presided over Keller’s ethics trial, recommended last month that she not be reprimanded.

In a report presented to the state Commission on Judicial Conduct Wednesday, prosecutors said Keller was “unapologetic” and that “her conduct authorizes action.”