STORY: "'Sleeping on air": "Fran Keller rejoices at the small blessings of freedom...while wondering about her future," by reporter Jordan Smith published by the Austin Chronicle on December 6, 2013;
GIST: "For more than two decades, Keller hoped she would some day be free – that someone would finally realize that she was innocent of the terrible crime she'd been charged with back in 1991. Despite their repeated protestations of innocence – and the fact that scant evidence suggested a crime had even happened, let alone linked them to it – both Kellers were tried, convicted, and sentenced to 48 years in prison. From prison, Fran Keller wrote letters, day after day, to countless attorneys, pleading that they reinvestigate her case; she was innocent, she told them. None replied. That was, until Austin defense attorney Keith Hampton not only took interest in her case, but filed a comprehensive appeal that ultimately – after a hearing this summer and an agreement with Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg that the Kellers had received an unfair trial back in 1992 – led to Fran's Nov. 26 release.........Keller worries still about the future. There remains more to the story of Fran and Dan Keller, yet to be written. The agreement between Lehmberg and Hampton that prompted her release must first be filed and transmitted to the Court of Criminal Appeals for approval; if and when the CCA signs off, the case will be kicked back to Lehmberg for a chance to retry the couple. If Lehmberg declines to do so, then Hampton still must fight to have the couple formally exonerated. "It scares you to death that you might have to go back," Keller said, worry and fear clouding her face. "They put me in for something I didn't do then, and they could put me back in now. It's scary." But Keller is also determined to continue to fight to prove that she never committed a crime. And she's eager to see Dan walk out of prison and into the arms of his family, as she has been able to do."
The entire story can be found at:
