Defendant was entitled to new sentencing hearing on his drug-related convictions, where at time defendant’s case was pending Dist. Ct. (Judge Bruce) was improperly communicating ex parte with prosecuting U.S. Attorney’s Office about other cases. Under 28 USC section 445(a), judge must recuse himself from any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned, and govt. conceded that Judge Bruce’s conduct gave appearance that he was biased in govt.’s favor. Moreover, error in failing to recuse himself was not harmless, where allowing defendant’s mid-range, 210-month sentence to stand would undermine public’s confidence in fairness of his sentence and in impartiality of judiciary, especially where Dist. Ct. has discretion in fashioning defendant’s sentence, and where said discretion invites risk that Dist. Ct.’s personal biases will influence or appear to influence sentence he imposes.
Federal 7th Circuit Court
Criminal Court
Recusal