Opinion ID: 1236089
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: judicial prejudice

Text: The state also asserts that the actions of the defense counsel prejudiced the judge against the defense, and this judicial prejudice supplies the manifest necessity for the mistrial. No authority is cited supporting this contention, but rather the state seeks to rely on two cases holding the bias of a juror to be sufficient justification for a declaration of a mistrial. [22] It is not at all clear that the judge disqualified himself for this reason. In fact, it appears that his concern was with the jury receiving possible inferences adverse to the defendant and not an inability on his part to proceed impartially. One of the prime qualifications of a judge is the ability to preside impartially at a trial. If the judge knows of reasons which would prevent such impartiality, he must disqualify himself in advance of trial, and we have a statute permitting peremptory challenge of a judge if a party believes he cannot obtain a fair and impartial trial under him. [23] Once a criminal trial has been commenced, the defendant is entitled to the services of such an impartial arbiter, and the judge cannot allow himself to lose that impartiality because of action of counsel. If, however, a judge should find himself in a position where he believes he can no longer function with the requisite degree of fairness, a defendant should not be prejudiced by a resultant declaration of mistrial. He should not be subjected to a second trial because of such a failure on the part of the judiciary. [24] Using a different rationale, the California Court of Appeals in Scott v. Municipal Court [25] prohibited a retrial where the trial judge, sitting without a jury, declared a mistrial because he felt the actions of defense counsel had so prejudiced him as to render an impartial verdict impossible. In granting defendant's writ of prohibition to prevent retrial, the court quoted from the California Supreme Court opinion in Curry v. Superior Court [26] as follows: Indeed, even when a palpably prejudicial error has been committed a defendant may have valid personal reasons to prefer going ahead with the trial rather than beginning the entire process anew, such as a desire to minimize the embarrassment, expense, and anxiety mentioned above. These considerations are peculiarly within the knowledge of the defendant, not the judge, and the latter must avoid depriving the defendant of his constitutionally protected freedom of choice in the name of a paternalistic concern for his welfare.