SAN ANTONIO (AP) - Prosecutors who put an embattled Texas judge on trial for refusing to keep her appeals court open while a death row inmate awaited execution say she still deserves punishment .
That recommendation came Wednesday in a scathing rejection of a report by last month by Judge David Berchelmann in the case of Judge Sharon Keller, presiding judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. Berchelmann presided over Keller's ethics trial and urged state commissioners to not reprimand her.
But Seana Willing, executive director of the state Commission on Judicial Conduct, told the commission in response that Keller's "unapologetic defense" is a failure to accept responsibility.
Keller faces five charges of judicial misconduct for refusing to keep her court open past 5 p.m. and allegedly denying a condemned inmate the chance to file an appeal before his execution in 2007.
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