United States v. Darryl Gordon Hickman and Fred McArthur Head

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• reasoning that judges intervening to control a difficult witness is permissible
• noting that a trial judge’s “position before a jury is overpowering”
• reversing a conviction where the trial court’s questions displayed bias against the defendant that violated the latter’s right to a fair trial
• finding plain error where, in addition to other conduct, trial judge interrupted counsel 250 times during trial
• noting the district court became a “surrogate prosecutor” whose conduct “must have left the jury with a strong impression of the judge’s belief of the defendant’s probable guilt”
• reversing and remanding for a new trial where a district judge improperly conducted redirect examination of a witness and constantly interrupted, which frustrated the defense at every turn and infringed upon defendants’ rights of cross-examination

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).