Opinion ID: 664055
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Personal Bias

Text: 16 Terry also argues that Attorney General Abrams bore a personal enmity against him requiring his disqualification. Terry relies on an alleged verbal exchange between the two men in April of 1992 and on Mr. Abrams's campaign commercials referring to his battle against anti-abortion extremists. We are unable to fault the district court's assessment that the first occurrence was an innocuous event of no significance to the prosecution and that the commercials simply reported facts and Mr. Abrams's characterization of certain pro-life groups. Moreover, any inference that the prosecution was motivated by Mr. Abrams's political ambitions is controverted by the fact that it was the district judge, not the Attorney General, who initiated Terry's prosecution for criminal as opposed to civil contempt. Furthermore, Mr. Abrams became involved as prosecutor only in response to the district court's request that he serve in this role after the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York declined the court's invitation to prosecute the case. 17 Finally, we note that a defendant who claims that a prosecutor bore a personal bias against him is required to show that he was prejudiced by the prosecutor's involvement. United States v. Wallach, 935 F.2d 445, 460 (2d Cir.1991) (citing Wright v. United States, 732 F.2d 1048, 1056 n. 8 (2d Cir.1984), cert. denied, 469 U.S. 1106, 105 S.Ct. 779, 83 L.Ed.2d 774 (1985)). Here, Terry has failed to demonstrate how he was detrimentally affected by the appointment of Mr. Abrams as opposed to some other prosecutor. Terry does not contest the district court's factual findings or the sufficiency of the evidence leading to his conviction. We have previously found unconvincing the claim that with another prosecutor, [the defendant] might have undeservedly escaped indictment and consequent conviction for crimes of which he was properly found to be guilty. Wright, 732 F.2d at 1058.