WAS IT JUDICIAN MISCONDUCT WHEN A TEXAS JUDGE CLOSED THE DOOR (LITERALLY) ON A LAST MINUTE DEATH ROW APPEAL?
The Texas State Commission on Judicial Conduct will decide this week whether or not to sanction Judge Sharon Keller for her actions on the afternoon of September 25, 2007 when, as the presiding judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, she refused to allow her court clerk’s office to stay open slightly after 5 pm to receive an appeal from from public defenders asking for a last minute stay of execution based on a Supreme Court decision that had been handed down earlier that day.
As a consequence, the request for the stay—which it is believed likely would have been granted—wasn’t received and the inmate, Michael Wayne Richard, was executed at 6 pm that same day.
The Dallas Morning News has more as does the Wall Street Journal.
But first you might want to re-read the full back story on this. (WLA posted on the story back in 2007.) It’s…disturbing.
Among other things, Keller could have and should have referred Richard’s lawyers to the judge whom she knew was assigned to hear after hours appeals—but she didn’t bother.
It is not that Michael Richard was a sympathetic character. He wasn’t. But as the Dallas Morning news wrote three years ago of the case:
When the state takes the life of a condemned criminal, it must do so with a sense of sobriety commensurate with its grave responsibility. Hastening the death of a man, even a bad one, because office personnel couldn’t be bothered to bend bureaucratic procedure was a breathtakingly petty act and evinced a relish for death that makes the blood of decent people run cold.
Yep.
A FEDERAL JUDGE QUESTIONS ULTRA LONG SENTENCES FOR THOSE WHO DOWNLOAD CHILD PORN
In Monday’s New York Times A.G. Sulzberger has an interesting story about Brooklyn Federal Court Judge Jack B. Weinstein who has thrown out two convictions for a guy who has downloaded thousands of child porn images from the internet. Weinstein believes the mandatory minimums for what the porn downloader—a married father of three—has done are far too high.
Here’s a representative clip:
There is little public sympathy for collectors of child pornography. Yet across the country, an increasing number of federal judges have come to their defense, criticizing changes to sentencing laws that have effectively quadrupled their average prison term over the last decade.
Last week, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit vacated a 20-year child pornography sentence by ruling that the sentencing guidelines for such cases, “unless applied with great care, can lead to unreasonable sentences.” The decision noted that the recommended sentences for looking at pictures of children being sexually abused sometimes eclipse those for actually sexually abusing a child.
Read the rest. It’s a complex and emotion filled issue, with no absolutely black and white answer. But the questions it raises are important.
I tend to agree with Judge Weinstein, as I see does my favorite sentencing guru, Doug Berman.
Yet, as I said above, it is not a simple issue.
LIBRARY WORKERS AND OTHERS STAGE A FATHER’S DAY “READ IN” AT MAYOR’S HOUSE TO PROTEST CUTS
According to According to the Librarians’ Guild and Save the Library campaign, the budget for city libraries has been cut by more than $20 million, and more than 150 library workers have been laid off as the city tries to reduce its projected half-billion-dollar budget deficit.
Library advocates say that when added to the hiring freeze and retirements, this latest round cuts the library staffing by a full one third, (!!!)which, they say, is one of the largest cuts to a city department.
CBS News reports:
“We have overcome disasters including earthquakes, we have risen from arson fires, but the Villaraigosa Disaster will haunt our library system for generations,” Roy Stone, president of the Librarians’ Guild, said. “The mayor has led this effort and he is succeeding in destroying one of the most important services provided to our residents.”
Libraries are essential resources, right after those dealing with public health and public safety.
Meanwhile, certain city agencies are not having their budgets slashed much at all. In fact, one is actually getting additional bucks.
More on that story tomorrow.
I never met a pedophile who didn’t have a child porn collection Celeste. These guys don’t get well and their sentences should reflect that from the first they are caught. Does everyone who downloads child porn molest a child, no, but to vacate a sentence of only 5 years is ridiculous. This is a very liberal judge who is full of it Celeste.
It is very disturbing to me that you think 5 years is to much time for this type of crime. I guess the young children who are victimized by this act (in fact didn’t one recently sue over her image being used in this manner) aren’t, in your view, victims of some type of social injustice.
I have no sympathy for this guy and the majority of the blame should be placed on his own attorneys.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Wayne_Richard
Sure Fire, I likely should have been clearer. I agree with the principal of challenging the sentencing guidelines that could mean 5-10 years or more. Yet I think they guy should do some prison time and then have post prison treatment required.
At the same time, I agree absolutely that the children are revictimized each time there’s a download, plus the more downloads, the greater the market.
Yet, I don’t understand why some sad, screwed up man, who himself was abused, would get the same or longer sentence for downloading child porn in his home than John Albert Gardner did after he hit and tried to sexually assault a 13-year-old. (If you remember, he’s the guy who later went on to murder Chelsea King and Amber Dubois.)
It doesn’t seem proportionate.
Real simple Celeste, Gardner should have gotten more time. I’d have to look at both laws and sentencing guidelines to give youa more in depth answer. If you’d like I’d be happy to do that.