Court Opinion

ID: 9564144
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 18:55:00.133764+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:18:14.608181
License: Public Domain

Brailsford, Justice
(dissenting):
I am convinced that the able trial judge, in the presence of the jury, inadvertently exceeded the bounds of propriety in his remarks to counsel during the examination of this witness Goss, and in his examination of this witness immediately afterward. This incident is adequately described in the majority opinion and need not be repeated.
In the colloquy between the court and counsel the judge, apparently, without provocation disclosed by the record, lost his temper, and, by the clearest inference if not directly, accused counsel of misrepresenting facts to the court. The judge’s examination of the witness immediately afterward concerning the same facts tended to emphasize his distrust of the representations which had just been made to him in the most unequivocal terms by counsel.
The remarks of the court tended to impugn the credibility of counsel and to diminish him and his defense of appellant in the eyes of the jury. Counsel’s ability to furnish effective representation was to that extent impaired, perhaps to appellant’s serious prejudice. I would reverse the judgment appealed from and grant the appellant a new trial.
Bussey, J., concurs.