A Judge Under Investigation

A man was tried for murder and sentenced to death. He asked for a different trial judge, because that judge was himself the target of a federal bribery investigation and the very office prosecuting him was said to be taking part in it. The request was refused. Later he produced papers from the judge's own criminal case showing that the prosecutors had indeed been involved. The law here asks whether the chance of real bias was too high to be allowed, whatever the judge actually felt.