A Texas House committee will hear testimony Monday on a bill that could lead to the impeachment of Sharon Keller, chief justice of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

Keller, a Republican and a former Dallas County prosecutor, has come under fire from death-penalty opponents and others. She's accused of refusing to allow the court to remain open after 5 p.m. on Sept. 25, 2007, to accept a last-minute appeal from a death-row inmate. He was executed hours later.

State Rep. Lon Burnam, D-Fort Worth, has introduced legislation that would create a special House committee to consider Keller's imeachment. His bill accuses her of "gross neglect of duty and conducting her official duties with willful disregard for human life."

The justice has denied that she did anything improper.

. . .

If Burnam's bill passed, and if the House found cause for impeachment, the judge would be tried before the Texas Senate.

Read the rest here.

Should make the Conference on Criminal Appeals interesting.

The whole thing has declined into a witch-hunt by the abolitionists.

JAS

[This message was edited by JAS on 04-23-09 at .]

A bill to abolish the CCA and roll its duties under the SCOTX is also set for a hearing in that same committee on Monday. Should be a banner day for the Court.

Oh, yes. That's a MUCH better solution.

A special court of review today dismissed a public warning issued against Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Presiding Judge Sharon Keller for her decision not to keep the court clerk's office open past business hours to allow a condemned man to file a last-minute appeal of his execution.

Details.