When Your Former Prosecutor Is Your Judge

The Supreme Court today decided Williams v. Pennsylvania, reversing the defendant's death penalty on the ground that the Chief Justice of Pennsylvania had erroneously denied a recusal motion in a post-conviction challenge, where he had previously, when serving as Philadelphia district attorney, signed an authorization to seek the death penalty in the trial court. The decision was 5-3, with Justice Kennedy writing for the majority.

Here is the the key sentence in Kennedy's opinion:  "Bias is easy to attribute to others and difficult to discern in oneself."

Here is the key sentence in Justice Thomas's dissent: "[The majority's] conclusion that bias alone could be grounds for disqualification as a constitutional matter 'represents a complete departure from common law principles.'”