John M. Rice v. Arthur L. McKenzie Acting Warden, West Virginia State Penitentiary

HAYNSWORTH, Chief Judge:

The question is whether a federal district judge must recuse himself in a federal ha-beas corpus case when, as chief justice of the state, he had participated in the state supreme court’s adjudication of the same claims. The district judge thought not. We have no doubt that the disposition of the claims in the district court was without any actual bias or prejudice, but we think that the objective standards of 28 U.S.C.A. § 455(a) required his recusal and that the case should be resubmitted to another district judge.

After having been convicted for armed robbery in West…