State v. Atchley

I dissent from the decision not to issue the writ and order the Court of Criminal Appeals to vacate its judgment compelling Judge Jenifer C. Holt to recuse herself from this case.

The Court of Criminal Appeals granted Hal Maxim Atchley’s mandamus petition *770premised on the ground that Canon 3.C. of the Alabama Canons of Judicial Ethics compels Judge Jenifer C. Holt, the trial judge in his murder trial, to recuse herself. Judge Holt’s recusal is being required, it appears, because Atchley, the criminal defendant in this murder case, alleges that some 20 years before he appeared in Judge Holt’s…