State v. Borrego

“Every litigant, including the State in criminal cases, is entitled to nothing less than the cold neutrality of an impartial judge.” It is the duty of courts to scrupulously guard this right of the litigant and to refrain from at*618tempting to exercise jurisdiction in any matter where his qualification to do so is seriously brought into question. The exercise of any other policy tends to discredit and place the judiciary in a compromising attitude which is bad for the administration of justice.

Livingston v. State, 441 So.2d 1083, 1086 (Fla.1983) (quoting State ex. rel. Mickle v. Rowe, 100 Fla.…