Trial of Texas judge under way

SAN ANTONIO, Aug. 17 (UPI) -- The trial of a Texas judge charged with refusing to hear a last-minute appeal in a death penalty case got under way Monday in San Antonio.

The Texas Commission on Judicial Misconduct charged Chief Justice Sharon Keller of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in February with bringing "public discredit" on the Texas justice system in the case of Michael Wayne Richard. He was executed Sept. 25, 2007, after Keller refused to take the appeal and failed to refer his lawyers to the judge assigned to the case.

Richard was executed the same day the U.S. Supreme Court said it would rule on whether lethal injection is cruel and unusual punishment. The Supreme Court announcement resulted in postponement of most executions in the United States -- including two in Texas.

Richard's lawyers had asked for more time to file an appeal because computer problems prevented them from getting papers to the court clerk's office by 5 p.m. but Keller declined to keep the office open late, the commission found.

Richard was executed for the 1986 shooting of 53-year-old Marguerite Lucille Dixon, a nurse and mother of seven who was robbed, raped and shot in her home.

Keller's court produces more executions than any other state court, The New York Times reported.