Supreme Court Throws Out Death Sentence Over Judge Who Had Prosecuted Case

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: The Wall Street Journal.

Supreme Court Throws Out Death Sentence Over Judge Who Had Prosecuted Case

By 5-3 vote, justices say risk of bias violated defendant’s constitutional rights

By Jess Bravin
[e-mail]

June 9, 2016 11:09 a.m. ET

WASHINGTON—The Supreme Court threw out a death sentence Thursday because a Pennsylvania judge who voted to uphold the verdict previously had prosecuted the case as the Philadelphia district attorney. ... The 5-3 ruling was the latest to see the Supreme Court step in and act on ethical questions in elected state courts, where judges lack the lifetime tenure intended to insulate the judicial system from political or financial pressures.

Ronald Castille, chief justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, declined to recuse himself when considering the state’s effort to preserve Terrance Williams’s death sentence, which a lower state court had invalidated because prosecutors withheld evidence helpful to the defendant. ... In his previous elected position as district attorney, Mr. Castille had authorized his prosecutors to seek the death penalty, which he then voted to uphold.

“The due process guarantee that ‘no man can be a judge of his own case’ would have little substance if it did not disqualify a former prosecutor for sitting in judgment of a prosecution in which he or she had made a critical decision,” Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the court, joined by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan. ... Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented.
....

The Supreme Court has in recent years taken more aggressive steps to police the integrity of elected state courts. In 2009, for instance, it held that a West Virginia state supreme court justice should have recused himself from a case involving mining executive Don Blankenship, who had spent $3 million to elect the judge.

Read more: http://www.wsj.com/articles/supreme-court-throws-out-death-sentence-over-judge-who-had-prosecuted-case-1465484938

[Kelvin Mace]

1. The fact that this was not an 8-0 decision

shows how utterly broken the SCOTUS is.

[Feeling the Bern]

4. Roberts, Alito, Thomas. . .do you expect anything less?

[TeamPooka]

9. The 3 biggest anti-Americans in the country. Hate-mongers and fascists.

So glad Scalia is dead.
yeah baby, said it when he died and still saying it.
Someday I hope to actually dance on his grave.

[Ilsa]

2. How can the Minority justify the opinion that it should stand?

It seems pretty simple to me.

I went to the link, but I don't have a subscription.

[Lochloosa]

3. Here you go...

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/06/supreme-court-says-judge-cant-rule-case-he-prosecuted

[Ilsa]

6. Thanks! Nt

[dbackjon]

5. Yet again, another reason to keep Court nominees out of the GOP's hands

President Trump would appoint more Alito's and Scalia's.

[askeptic]

7. Guardian Link - no paywall

http://www.theguardian.com/law/2016/jun/09/supreme-court-rules-death-row-inmate-judge-recusal-case

In the dissent Roberts argued that his colleagues made a decision “on proverb rather than precedent”, and that Castille’s original role in the case was “unconnected” to the new claims brought by Williams about evidence.

“Williams does not allege that chief justice Castille had any previous knowledge of the contested facts at issue,” Roberts wrote, “or that he had previously made any decision on the questions raised by that petition.”

But Roberts was careful not to say whether he thought Castille should have recused himself anyway, noting “a number of state court decisions and ethics opinions that prohibit a prosecutor from later serving as judge in a case that he has prosecuted.”

Still, he argued: “it is up to state authorities – not this court – to determine whether recusal should be required.”

***

Castille was the Philadelphia district attorney who approved a death penalty prosecution of Williams, and refused to recuse himself when the inmate’s case reached the state high court in 2014. In 2012 a lower court had thrown out the death sentence on the grounds of evidence withheld by the prosecution, five days before Williams’ scheduled execution.

---------------

Roberts is sometimes breathtaking in his argumentation - it's up to state authorities - even though the judge was on the supreme court that wouldn't recuse himself! So how could the state have fixed this otherwise? The prosecution (now Supreme Court Judge) obviously knew about the withheld evidence, but wasn't going to have his past prosecution questioned - regardless of whether a man's life was on the line. And then says that the judge couldn't have known about the withheld evidence. Huh?

[geek tragedy]

8. this should have been 8-0

how the hell do you not recuse yourself under these circumstances?

[TeamPooka]

10. 3 are scumbags. nt

[cstanleytech]

11. Ha, thats an understatement.