Texas Appeals Court Approves Execution-Night E-mails
AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals will accept emergency e-mail filings in death penalty cases after Texas lawyers filed a petition protesting the circumstances surrounding a recent execution.
Convicted murderer Michael Richard was executed in September after presiding Judge Sharon Keller ordered the court clerk’s office to close at its regular time of 5 p.m., despite a request for additional time to file an appeal.
The new Court of Criminal Appeals instant response system will send emergency death-penalty filings and other extraordinary matters submitted electronically by e-mail to the duty judge on call.
Under the new system, attorneys filing an emergency appeal electronically must notify the court clerk of the late filing. An official paper filing must be submitted to the clerk by 9:30 a.m. the following day. The system is only a short-term measure until a comprehensive electronic filing system is deployed in Texas courts in 2010, officials say.
About 300 Texas attorneys filed a petition with the appeals court in the wake of the Richard execution, protesting the actions of Judge Keller and urging the court to adopt an e-filing system in death penalty cases. Previously, all requests had to be filed in person.
In the Richard case, computer problems at the attorney’s office prevented the appeal from being filed before the court clerk’s office closed and Richard’s legal team asked for additional time to complete the filing. Judge Keller ordered the clerk’s office to close at its usual time, and Richard’s attorneys were unable to file the appeal prior to the 5 p.m. closure.
Following the execution, several judges from the state’s appeals panel later insisted they were available to consider the late appeal had they been notified.
On the day of Richard’s execution, the U.S. Supreme Court was hearing a case that sought to establish that the chemical cocktail used in Kentucky to administer execution by lethal injection constituted cruel and unusual punishment, and Richard’s attorneys had attempted to win a stay of execution on the basis that Texas used the same chemicals, officials say.
