Opinion ID: 1852334
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Whether the Judge Who Imposed the Original Sentence Should Have Recused Himself on Resentencing.

Text: Defendant contends that the sentencing judge should have honored his request that the judge recuse himself because he had presided over the original trial and sentencing and had formed opinions concerning defendant's culpability. Defendant contends that it was impossible for Judge Bower to approach resentencing with an open mind. Judge Bower denied defendant's request and expressed confidence that he was not biased from any extrajudicial source. Only personal bias or prejudice stemming from an extrajudicial source stands as a disqualifying factor per se. State v. Smith, 282 N.W.2d 138, 142 (Iowa 1979); State v. Haskins, 573 N.W.2d 39, 45 (Iowa Ct.App.1997). Judges are routinely asked to review their own prior rulings. The Supreme Court has stated in this regard: The judge who presides at a trial may, upon completion of the evidence, be exceedingly ill disposed towards the defendant, who has been shown to be a thoroughly reprehensible person. But the judge is not thereby recusable for bias or prejudice, since his knowledge and the opinion it produced were properly and necessarily acquired in the course of the proceedings, and are indeed sometimes (as in a bench trial) necessary to completion of the judge's task. Liteky v. United States, 510 U.S. 540, 550-51, 114 S.Ct. 1147, 1155, 127 L.Ed.2d 474, 488 (1994). Defendant's convictions in the present case did result from a bench trial. We find no basis for concluding that the sentencing judge abused his discretion in failing to recuse himself.