Nov. 17--AUSTIN -- Death penalty opponents ratcheted up the pressure on the embattled presiding judge of the state's highest appeals court on Friday by hand-delivering letters calling on her to either resign or be removed from office for closing the court while lawyers for a condemned inmate facing death were preparing their last-ditch appeal.

About two dozen sign-carrying activists submitted the letters as the clock approached 5 p.m., which was the time Texas criminal appeals court Judge Sharon Keller closed up shop on Sept. 25 before lawyers for Death Row inmate Michael Richard could file their appeal. The lawyers were attempting to argue that Richard's 6 p.m. execution should be set aside in light of the fact that earlier in the day, the U.S. Supreme Court had agreed to hear arguments over whether lethal injection violates the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

"Justice does not close at 5 p.m.," said Laura Brady, a protester from Austin. "Judge Keller has got to understand that."

Keller, who has served on the appeals court since 1995 and has been the presiding judge since 2001, has not responded to calls that she be sanctioned by the State Commission on Judicial Conduct. But last week she implemented a policy of allowing after-hours emergency appeals to be filed electronically.

That action came too late to satisfy Scott Cobb, the organizer of the protest that began outside the Texas Supreme Court building.

"We think she abdicated her responsibility as a judge," Cobb said. "She ought to remove herself from office, or the Commission on Judicial Conduct should remove her."

Richard's execution for the 1986 rape and slaying of a nurse in Harris County went forward, but it was the last one to be carried out in the United States while the high court prepares to hear arguments from a Kentucky case on whether the injection used on condemned inmates in most death-penalty states actually inflicts unseen suffering.

Online: www.cca.courts.state.tx.us

This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

John Moritz reports from the Star-Telegram's Austin bureau. 512-476-4294