Court Opinion

ID: 9864749
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-25 16:09:21.635109+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:31:29.952454
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Hilliard
dissenting.
I shall never be convinced that judicial fairness has obtained in the conduct of a trial, where, as here, the judge was constantly speaking harshly or disparagingly to or of the defendant, and berating and upbraiding her counsel in the manner disclosed by this record. The instances of the judge’s offending, quoted in the court opinion, and stated there to be “fair samples” of “some twenty” such outbursts — neither the worst nor an over-count, as my study convinces — constitute material error of gravest import. It is much more important, the spirit of law in a free country observed, that a fair trial be accorded than that conviction be made certain. I regret that in the interest of some needed fundamental declarations, we have not made avail of the writ here.