Commonwealth v. Badger

In my judgment the Court today errs seriously in two respects. In the first place, the Court assumes that a judge *245who hears a proffered guilty plea, quickly withdrawn, is thereby rendered disqualified to try the case non-jury on the merits. In the second place, the Court perpetuates the mistaken idea that each and every instance of ineffectiveness of trial counsel, as found under the “reasonable basis” test, is ground for a new trial.

For this Court to assume that a trial judge can no longer try a case with impartiality once he has heard a suggestion (for such it was here) of a guilty plea is…