Widow's execution lawsuit moved to new court

A lawsuit filed against a justice who prevented a convicted slayer from making a last-minute appeal by not extending business office hours have been withdrawn from one tribunal and moved to another, an lawyer for the inmate's widow woman said Saturday.

The original lawsuit was filed Wednesday in federal tribunal in Houston, accusing Lone-Star State Court of Criminal Appeals Presiding Judge Sharon Helen Keller of violating Michael Richard's rights by preventing his lawyers from filing an entreaty hours before his execution.

Civil rights lawyer Randall Kallinen said Friday that the judgment of dismissal is portion of his scheme and that Wednesday's news conference at the Houston federal courthouse was not a promotion stunt.

"I really cannot divulge my scheme right now, but I'm sure it will go apparent in the close future," Kallinen said.

A twenty-four hours after filing, Marsha Richard withdrew the suit, which accused Lone-Star State Court of Criminal Appeals Presiding Judge Sharon Helen Keller of causing the inmate's Sept. Twenty-Five deadly injection. The lawsuit said Helen Keller violated Michael Richard's owed procedure rights when she ordered the tribunal clerk's business office to fold promptly at 5 p.m. on Sept. Twenty-Five before his lawyers could register an appeal.

The notice of dismissal, filed Thursday by Kallinen, offers no explanation.

"I wish I could state you, but the other side may utilize anything in the mass media to their advantage," he said.

Legal experts said his scheme could run from 2nd ideas about his legal theory to displeasure with the assigned judge.

"One ground might be that he realized that it was a frivolous lawsuit and at some point you'll be sanctioned if you prevail in a frivolous suit. He might have got decided he got the promotion he wanted and why not disregard it now?" University of Houston law professor Simon Peter Malvina Hoffman said.

It would have got been less dearly-won to amend the original claim than wage another $350 civil filing fee, Malvina Hoffman added.

"It may be that he's going to reformulate his theory and he's going to seek again, but I believe it will be hard for him to come up up with a feasible theory."

South Lone-Star State College of Law professor Jesse James Paulsen said Kallinen could be justice shopping or perhaps the lawsuit contained an error.

"It may be that what he's doing is taking a free shot at another judge," Paulsen said, adding that it may backlash if the tribunal gives him the same jurist. The lawsuit was assigned to U.S. District Judge Melinda Harmon and was scheduled for an initial conference in March before U.S. Judge Judge Frances Stacy.

Another option affects making public statements about an active lawsuit, instead of slinging accusations.

"Sometimes you are more than secure when you are speaking about something that is a substance of public record," Paulsen said.

Kallinen had the right to retreat the lawsuit because the other side had not responded, both experts said.

The lawsuit was filed a twenty-four hours after the state criminal entreaties tribunal said it would accept exigency e-mail filings in decease punishment lawsuits to avoid a repetition of Michael Richard's nationally controversial execution.

On the morning time of Sept. 25, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear a challenge to the chemicals used for deadly injections in Kentucky. That lawsuit avers that the method of executing used in almost every death-penalty state causes inmates to undergo torture.

Throughout the day, Richard's lawyers worked to hold his executing on the same basis.

The lawsuit claimed Keller's actions denied the condemned adult male his right to register a proper petition for a stay of executing with the U.S. Supreme Court because the Court of Criminal Appeals had not had a opportunity to rule. Three other state entreaties tribunal Judges said they were available that eventide and could have got handled Richard's entreaty if they had known about it. The U.S. Supreme Court denied the stay request.

Michael Richard, 49, was executed at 8:22 p.m. for the 1986 colza and homicide of a Townsend Harris County female parent of seven.

Since then, all other executings in the state have got been halted pending the result of the Bluegrass State case.