Turns out, when I’d blogged about Supreme Court candidate Sam Houston that he was not, in fact, the first Democrat to declare for the Place 7 seat on the Texas Supreme Court. I have since received an email from Baltazar Cruz informing me that he has been running for this seat for awhile now. My sincere apologies to Mr. Cruz for the oversight. As I said before, it’s nice to see people lining up for these races. Now if we could only extend some of that mojo to the Court of Criminal Appeals, we’d really be in business.
And speaking of both the Supreme Court and the CCA, Judge Susan Criss has a BOR diary up called “They’ve taken the courthouse away from folks”, which is about Judge Sharon Keller and her nine-to-five style. Judge Criss had previously commented to Scott Henson about the Keller situation:
I happened to speak on Friday with Galveston District Judge Susan Criss, who’s running for the Texas Supreme Court, about this incident, and she told me she’s interrupted “after hours” all the time, mostly by police and prosecutors. Particularly for search warrants, Criss said, district judges routinely make themselves available day or night to officers of the court on the prosecution side, and she couldn’t believe an experienced judge wouldn’t extend the same courtesy to the defense, particularly in a capital case, wondering with astonishment, “Wasn’t she ever a trial judge?”
Apparently not, as it happens. Not that it should matter, as Keller has been on the bench now since 1994. I don’t think it’s job experience that was the key factor in her actions, I think it was just a matter of who she is and what she does. Which is all the more damning, if you ask me.