Criminal appeals court foes cite ethics, expertise

Presiding judge defends actions; opponent says he’ll ‘restore integrity.’

In two Republican primary races for the state’s highest criminal court, a challenger wants to make ethics the centerpiece of his bid to unseat Presiding Judge Sharon Keller, and three candidates are vying for an open seat in a clash that pits experience against conservative support.

Early voting for the Court of Criminal Appeals primary races ends Friday, and the election is Tuesday.

In the race for presiding judge, David Bridges — a member of the Dallas-based 5th Court of Appeals since 1997 — said he wants to “restore integrity to the office” and criticized Keller for what he calls a series of ethical missteps, including paying a $25,000 Texas Ethics Commission fine in 2013 for not disclosing $3.8 million in property and income on required financial disclosure statements and for her role in declining an appeal from death row inmate Michael Richard in 2007 because it came after 5 p.m. Richard was executed later that night.

“I believe in the death penalty, but everyone deserves their day in court. You just don’t close the court on a time clock. Our court recently stayed up till 1 a.m. on a voter ballot case,” Bridges said.

Keller said that Bridges was dredging up old issues that have been settled — the financial statements were an “oversight” that she corrected, and an ethics reprimand over the Richard’s execution was overturned on appeal. Voters already knew about the issues being raised by Bridges when they elected her to a fourth six-year term to the court in 2012, she said.

“I am really trying to stress my own experience, my qualifications,” Keller said. “I think this election is about so much more, and after 23 years on this court, I have voted on most of the cases that established the jurisprudence of Texas and criminal law, so I know what the law is.”

Both candidates for presid-