Johnson v. State

CATHELL, Judge.

The conduct of the presiding trial judge in this case requires us to reverse petitioner’s criminal conviction. 1 Petitioner asks us to determine whether a “presumption of prejudice” is created by inappropriate conduct such as the conduct that occurred in this case or whether a stricter standard of “actual prejudice” must be demonstrated before a reversal is warranted. Because we believe petitioner suffered actual prejudice at his trial below, we shall not address whether a “presumption of prejudice” would exist.

BACKGROUND

We first shall review briefly the facts leading up to the…