OZschwitz: It's O.K. for judges to be temporarily distracted, but sleeping in court is out

IT IS OK for judges to be temporarily distracted, but sleeping in court is out, the High Court has ruled.

Two men, whose trial was presided by the former District Court judge Ian Dodd, have been granted a retrial on drugs charges after the ruling, published yesterday.

Judge Dodd, who had been referred to as "the sleeping judge" after repeatedly falling asleep in court, retired from the bench in 2005. He was diagnosed with sleep apnoea.

The High Court found it could not be sure the jury in the 17-day trial reached a correct verdict because they had been distracted by the judge, who slept for periods of up to 20 minutes and even snored at times.

The jury had been distracted by the judge's sleep episodes, and some had "found his behaviour amusing and even emulated it", the High Court judgment says. It raised the question of how well the jury paid attention to the evidence, including that of the two accused, during which Judge Dodd also fell asleep.

It was also unclear whether the jury paid enough respect and attention to the judge's direction at the end of the trial, the High Court says.

The court overruled an earlier decision by the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal that found the trial had not been unfair, the judge had not failed in his directions to the jury, and the jury had not been unfairly prejudiced against the accused.

LNK

OZschwitz: It's O.K. for judges to be temporarily distracted, but sleeping in court is out

OZschwitz: It's O.K. for judges to be temporarily distracted, but sleeping in court is out

Anarcho-Capitalist Categorical Imperatives

Via AnCaps: Law & Enforced Unnatural Order