Judge Sharon Keller is the presiding judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. She is on trial nearly two years after refusing to keep the court open in September 2007 with Michael Wayne Richard's (ruh-SHARD's) execution imminent and his lawyers scrambling to file an appeal.

Keller faces five counts of judicial misconduct. She sat quietly at the defense table as her special hearing got under way Monday. But she did stand to acknowledge that she planned to testify.

She could take the stand as early as Tuesday.