United States v. George Charles Sundstrom

J. JOSEPH SMITH, Circuit Judge:

This appeal presents the rather unusual question of whether a successor *861judge can enter a conviction after his predecessor in a non-jury trial has made detailed factual findings, but has left the verdict open in order to consider an essentially legal defense. Because we believe Judge McLean, the trial judge, had decided all relevant factual questions against appellant before his untimely death, and that Judge Cannella, the successor judge, thereafter properly found that appellant had failed to establish his “order of call” defense,1 we affirm the two judges’…