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Judicial Roulette: Recusal Motions in Criminal Cases

By Jodi Misher Peikin and James R. Stovall
June 26, 2008

Medievals believed that fortune was controlled by a wheel that brought prosperity one day but woe the next. The fate of defendants in criminal cases is shaped by a wheel no less capricious: the random assignment of judges. And while fortune's wheel may be inescapable, a recent Ninth Circuit decision vacating a conviction because the trial judge failed to recuse himself, and a pending recusal application by convicted executive Jamie Olis, remind us that sometimes defendants try to improve their judicial lot through recusal, though with little hope for success.

The Law on Recusal

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