Sharon "Killer" Keller's trial starts...

[TreasonousBastard]

for those of you who don't know, Keller is the judge on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals who refused to allow a death row appeal a few minutes after 5PM-- ordering the judge on duty to refuse it. Baze was executed that night, and there is, even in Texas, a great outcry over this.

A few years ago the New Yorker had a long piece on Keller, outlining her career as a prosecutor and judge, noting that she was censured for some sleazy doings in the DA's office, and her opinions as a judge on various courts was always for the prosection or the company screwing some poor slob-- Scalia in drag.

Anti death penalty groups and good government types have been on her case for years, with little effect, but this Baze thing finally woke the sleeping giant and she is being tried under the aegis of a special master to see if she did enough wrong in this case to be removed. Possibly even disbarred.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=111997900

http://sentencing.typepad.com/sentencing_law_and_policy/2009/08/what-can-and-should-we-take-away-from-the-trial-of-texas-judge-sharon-keller.html

[derby378]

1. Er, if this is a CRIMINAL case...

...wouldn't disbarrment be the least of her worries? Isn't she facing prison time? Or maybe a capital murder charge? Is "Killer" Keller facing her own date with the poison needle in Huntsville?

[TreasonousBastard]

3. It's more administrative-- about removing her from the bench...

I'm not sure if criminal charges have been filed, and they wouldn't be capital if they were.

[CurtEastPoint]

2. Why am I not surprised? The TIME article describes her as a 'devout Christian.'

WWJE? Who would Jesus execute?

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1915814,00.html

[happyslug]

4. Jesus was only involved in one death penalty case

Yes, he was executed but that was as a defendant he had previously been called to Judge a death penalty case. It is recorded in Gospel according to St John Chapter 8:

1
while Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. (Footnote 1)
2
But early in the morning he arrived again in the temple area, and all the people started coming to him, and he sat down and taught them.
3
Then the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery and made her stand in the middle.
4
They said to him, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery.
5
Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. (Footnote 2) So what do you say?"
6
They said this to test him, so that they could have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and began to write on the ground with his finger. (Footnote 3)
7
(Footnote 4) But when they continued asking him, he straightened up and said to them, "Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her."
8
Again he bent down and wrote on the ground.
9
And in response, they went away one by one, beginning with the elders. So he was left alone with the woman before him.
10
Then Jesus straightened up and said to her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?"
11
She replied, "No one, sir." Then Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you. Go, (and) from now on do not sin any more."

Footnotes:
1 <1> Mount of Olives: not mentioned elsewhere in the gospel tradition outside of passion week.

2 <5> Lev 20:10 and Deut 22:22 mention only death, but Deut 22:23-24 prescribes stoning for a betrothed virgin.

3 <6> Cf Jeremiah 17:13 (RSV): "Those who turn away from thee shall be written in the earth, for they have forsaken the , the fountain of living water"; cf John 7:38.

4 <7> The first stones were to be thrown by the witnesses (Deut 17:7).

http://www.usccb.org/nab/bible/john/john8.htm

No one seems to want to follow his example

Note on Footnote 3. Footnote 3 cites Jermiah 17:13 which reads as follows O hope of Israel, O LORD! all who forsake you shall be in disgrace; The rebels in the land shall be put to shame; they have forsaken the source of living waters (the LORD).
Footnote 3 then cites John 7:38:
Whoever believes in me, as scripture says: 'Rivers of living water (Footnote 14) will flow from within him.'"

Footnote 14 of John 7:38 reads as follows: Living water: not an exact quotation from any Old Testament passage; in the gospel context the gift of the Spirit is meant; cf John 3:5. From within him: either Jesus or the believer; if Jesus, it continues the Jesus-Moses motif (water from the rock, Exodus 17:6; Numbers 20:11) as well as Jesus as the new temple (cf Ezekiel 47:1). Grammatically, it goes better with the believer.

More from the Catholic notes on John, this time John 7:53:
17 <7:53-8:11> The story of the woman caught in adultery is a later insertion here, missing from all early Greek manuscripts. A Western text-type insertion, attested mainly in Old Latin translations, it is found in different places in different manuscripts: here (John 7:53), or after John 7:36 or at the end of this gospel, or after Luke 21:38, or at the end of that gospel. There are many non-Johannine features in the language, and there are also many doubtful readings within the passage. The style and motifs are similar to those of Luke, and it fits better with the general situation at the end of Luke 21:but it was probably inserted here because of the allusion to Jeremiah 17:13 (cf the note on John John 8:6) and the statement, "I do not judge anyone," in John 8:15. The Catholic Church accepts this passage as canonical scripture.

http://www.usccb.org/nab/bible/john/john8.htm#v15

[Spoonman]

5. For those who want to know...

There is little if any "outcry" in Texas over this!

The crime occurred very close to where I live, and pretty much the majority of people in Texas say "FUCK HIM" and good job Judge Keller.

The piece of shit "Wayne Richard" got what he deserved!

http://www.oag.state.tx.us/oagnews/release.php?print=1&id=2189

... sexually assaulted Mrs. Dixon and shot her in the head with a .25 caliber automatic pistol.

Richard admitted he was involved in Mrs. Dixon’s murder and offered to help find the murder weapon. Police found the weapon and testing revealed it to be the gun that fired the fatal shot.

Judge Keller should be returned to the bench and the bleeding heart assholes who don't know the truth of what happened should be told to fuck off!