William K. McMahon v. Gary Hodges, Warden, Gowanda Correctional Facility, and the Attorney General of the State of New York

SACK, Circuit Judge.

The State of New York appeals from a judgment of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Denny Chin, Judge) granting the petitioner-appellee William McMahon’s application for a writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254. The district court concluded that although the state trial judge did not err in declining to recuse himself from presiding over McMahon’s trial, he did violate established federal law, as determined by the Supreme Court of the United States, by conditioning the transfer of McMahon’s case at his request to another…