Posted: March 13th, 2022

Judicial Conduct

Judicial Misconduct
Judicial abuse of power and misconduct may bring disrepute to the judicial office (Neubauer & Fradella, 2018). Judges who misbehave tarnish the reputation of the judicial office and this can cause the amount of respect the public has for this office to decrease. Improper conduct by judges can also make the public lose faith in the judicial system. The public may thus not trust this system to deliver justice since the people in it act unethically. One of the remedies to this issue is to remove such judges from office. As such, the judiciary commission can force the voluntarily retirement of judges who misbehave (Neubauer & Fradella, 2018). Another remedy is suspension. This is where judges are removed from office temporarily for a certain period of time.
Judge Wilson should be recused from the case on the basis of bias. Evidently, a conflict of interest exists since an intern who works in the prosecutor’s office saw Judge Wilson and the defendant Anne Marie Johnson having late night coffee at a coffee shop. Therefore, the actions of the judge in this case are likely to favor the defendant. Judge Wilson should not be disqualified from the case. There is no solid evidence to prove that the judge personally knows the defendant. Also, there is no way to prove what the intern said he saw is true; it could be a case of the prosecution trying to get even with the judge.
Yes. There is harm in Judge Wilson having coffee with Anne Marie Johnson. This is because there is a high likelihood of them discussing the case, and as a result, violate the law. Also, socializing will present the issue of conflict of interest. As such, the judge may be bias in that his actions will tend to favor the defendant more compared to the other party in the case.
Yes. There is concern for the tone and language Judge Wilson used when speaking to state attorneys. He was disrespectful, and as such, acted unethically. From his tone of voice, it is quite evident that he did not get along with people at the state attorney’s office as he ended up insulting them. Therefore, his conduct indicates that he is likely to favor the opposing side.

Reference
Neubauer, D. W., & Fradella, H. F. (2018). America’s courts and the criminal justice system. Cengage Learning.

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