judicial misconduct

Murder Conviction Tossed over Judge’s Misconduct

May 13, 2011 02:15

Serving a life sentence since 2009, Oklahoma City prison resident Kassie Bills is about to get a new trial. The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals reversed her murder conviction on Wednesday, ruling that presiding Judge Ray Elliot improperly influenced jurors when he told them not to be "one of...

Appearances

Rick Horowitz
February 02, 2011 04:55

Wow. Jamison Koehler was responsible for BlawgReview #296 this week and chose to focus on “Images from the Criminal Law Blawgosphere.” As I read it, I repeatedly marveled to myself. First, I thought it was a pretty cool concept. Most BlawgReviews, since I started reading them, have a...

A Judge’s Duty to Public Safety

Rick Horowitz
December 12, 2010 18:39

The other day, I was in court when a judge I actually like did something that I definitely don’t. It’s not just a matter of my not liking it, however.  It’s part and parcel of why the United States of America no longer exists under its original charter, the United States...

That Ye Be Not Judged

Rick Horowitz
August 15, 2010 00:17

I previously wrote a post titled “Judge Not,” so I couldn’t go with that again.  Then it occurred to me that the second part of Matthew 7:1 from the book read by almost as many Christians as non-Christians fits the current post better anyway. Mike Cernovich, over at Crime &...

Oh, To Be A Prosecutor!

Rick Horowitz
May 16, 2010 17:05

For obvious reasons, I’m not going to get too detailed in this post.  This post is going to give one example from my own experience of why I think judges these days are not doing their jobs; they’ve abdicated the position of neutral arbiter of the law. Recently, I had a situation where...