Sharon Keller seeks higher evidentiary standard in her hearing

Court of Criminal Appeals Presiding Judge Sharon Keller argues in a July 31 motion that the judge in her upcoming hearing on ethics charges should apply a higher standard of evidence than the one required by State Commission on Judicial Conduct rules. In the motion she filed with the commission, Keller requests that 37th District Judge David Berchelmann Jr., the special master for Keller’s hearing, base his findings of fact regarding the charges against her on the evidentiary standard of clear and convincing evidence. Under judicial conduct commission rules, the master would base his findings on the lower standard of preponderance of the evidence. “Application of the preponderance of the evidence standard would not be sufficient to ensure that any deprivation of Respondent’s [Keller’s] property interest in her position as Presiding Judge of the Court of Criminal Appeals would not be arbitrary,” Keller alleges in the motion. In February, the judicial conduct commission initiated formal proceedings against Keller, claiming she committed misconduct on Sept. 25, 2007, when she allegedly told the CCA’s general counsel that the clerk’s office would not remain open after 5 p.m. that day to receive documents that Michael Richard's lawyers wanted to file. Keller contends in her answer, filed March 24, that she simply was asked whether the clerk's office stayed open past 5 p.m. and that she answered, "No." The state executed Richard later that day. Keller’s hearing is scheduled to begin Aug. 17 in San Antonio.
-- Mary Alice Robbins