The state judicial ethics commission Thursday charged Sharon Keller, the presiding judge of the state’s highest criminal court, with violating her duty and bringing discredit upon the judiciary when she declined to allow a death row prisoner to file an after-hours appeal in 2007.

Keller will face a public trial to answer the charges and could be removed from office, reprimanded or exonerated.

“Judge Keller’s willful and persistent failure to follow (her court’s) execution-day procedures on Sept. 25, 2007, constitutes incompetence in the performance of duties of office,” according to a notice of formal proceedings from the state Commission on Judicial Conduct.