A group of 24 judicial ethics experts from around the nation write in a declaration received today by the State Commission on Judicial Conduct that Sharon Keller, presiding judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, should be removed from the bench.
In their “Ethics Experts’ Declaration,” the authors — including University of Houston Law Center professor Robert Schuwerk, co-author of the handbook “Texas Lawyer and Judicial Ethics 2006-2007,” and Houston solo Steven Smoot, a member of the Association of Professional Responsibility Lawyers and the Texas Center for Legal Ethics and Responsibility — allege Keller violated judicial ethics under the Texas Code of Judicial Conduct, including her obligation to provide litigants due process of law. In the declaration, the experts allege Keller violated judicial ethics by deciding cases “despite her lack of impartiality and the appearance of impartiality, which required her to recuse herself.”
