U.S. v. Williams

Defendant was not entitled to new trial on robbery charges, even though defendant argued that certain ex parte communications by Dist. Ct. with personnel in U.S. Attorney’s Office for Central Dist. of Illinois in other criminal matters violated defendant’s due process rights in instant case. Defendant failed to produce any evidence of actual bias arising out of said ex parte communications, and Special Committee investigating said communications found no evidence that said communications had impacted any of Dist. Ct.’s rulings or advantaged either party. Moreover, while Dist. Ct. should have recused himself under federal recusal statute, since said statements could have given reasonable person appearance that Dist. Ct. was not impartial, any violation of said statute was harmless, where: (1) none of ex parte communications occurred in instant case; (2) jury was trier-of-fact in instant case; (3) defendant did not challenge Dist. Ct.’s pre-trial or trial rulings; and (4) none of factors set forth in Liljeberg, 486 U.S. 847, favored remand for new trial. Also, different Dist. Ct. judge did not commit reversible error in sentencing defendant to 180-month term of incarceration, even though Dist. Ct. erred in finding that defendant qualified for enhanced sentencing treatment as career offender, where Dist. Ct. observed that it would have imposed same sentence even if defendant had not qualified as career offender based upon well-articulated section 3553(a) factors.