Judge’s reprimand in death penalty case stands

HOUSTON (AP) — The Texas Supreme Court has refused to hear an appeal from the state’s highest criminal court judge, who wants a reprimand for her handling of an execution-day appeal revoked.

Judge Sharon Keller had appealed the “public warning” the State Commission on Judicial Conduct gave her after she closed her court while defense lawyers were trying to file a last-minute appeal for an inmate executed hours later.

Michael Wayne Richard received a lethal injection on the same day in 2007 that the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to consider whether mentally impaired people should be spared from execution.

The judicial conduct panel decided Keller had mishandled her duties and cast “public discredit on the judiciary.” It could have recommended she be removed from the bench.