28 Facts About Sharon Keller

Sharon Faye Keller was born on August 1,1953 and is the Presiding Judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

Sharon Keller is chairman of the Texas Task Force on Indigent Defense.

Sharon Keller serves on the executive board of the Capitol Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America.

In 2000, Sharon Keller was challenged in the Republican primary election for the presiding judge slot of the Court of Criminal Appeals by sitting Judge Tom Price of Dallas.

Sharon Keller prevailed, 122,958 to Price's 101,514 votes.

In 1996, Sharon Keller wrote her first major opinion, which denied a new trial to Cesar Fierro, who had confessed to murdering an El Paso cab driver, Nicholas Castanon.

Sharon Keller indicated that the "knowing use of perjured testimony" is trial error and that applicant had to prove harm by a preponderance of evidence.

Sharon Keller said it was "totally inconceivable" that Fierro's confession had not convinced the jurors of his guilt.

Mike McDougal, the district attorney, denies that his office ever "impugned the reputation of Ogg" and claims not to know where Sharon Keller got information about the victim's purported promiscuity.

Sharon Keller emphasized the importance of the finality of judgments, and said that Criner had not unquestionably established he was innocent, the applicable standard according to her.

Sharon Keller emphasized that juries were the heart of the judicial system.

In 2009, Texas Monthly said of this interview that Sharon Keller appeared to have considered the DNA evidence "a technicality".

Sometime after lunch Sharon Keller left the office to meet her repairman at home.

The court clerk, after receiving the call from a TDS paralegal, called Marty, who in turn called Sharon Keller to ask if the clerk's office could stay open late.

Sharon Keller told Marty that the clerk's office closes at 5, and Richard was executed later that night.

Sharon Keller maintains that it has long been precedent in Texas for late appeals to be hand-delivered to the court or a judge, and that it was not required for them to be filed with the clerk.

The Commission voted to initiate formal proceedings against Sharon Keller that included a public trial starting on August 17,2009, before a Special Master appointed by the Texas Supreme Court.

Sharon Keller's attorneys claimed that TDS "could have easily filed the appeal by calling the on-duty judge", and, as Johnson later testified, "communications about his execution should have gone to her under the CCA's execution-day protocol," they did not contact Johnson, instead pursuing the clerk by cell phone.

Sharon Keller testified at her hearing that in hindsight she would do nothing differently.

Sharon Keller concluded that "there is a valid reason why many in the legal community are not proud of Judge Keller's actions" but that she had violated no law or ethical rule, and recommended no further sanction against Keller "beyond the public humiliation she has surely suffered".

The report found that TDS, not Sharon Keller, bore "the bulk of fault for what occurred".

Sharon Keller sought to have the charges dismissed, saying it would be "financially ruinous" for her to pay a private attorney or law firm to fight the allegations.

Sharon Keller amended her personal financial statement in April 2009 to disclose more than $2.4 million in property and income previously left out.

Sharon Keller said that her failure to fully disclose her financial information stemmed from error and not a deliberate attempt to mislead.

In 2012, Sharon Keller defeated her Democratic opponent, Keith Hampton, and retained her judgeship.

Sharon Keller polled 4,245,148 votes to Hampton's 3,152,518.

Sharon Keller was again reelected in the general election held on November 6,2018.

Sharon Keller has opposed the use of "actual innocence", demanding a higher bar of proof to exonerate prisoners who have been falsely convicted, and opposing compensating those for time spent falsely imprisoned.