Posted on 10/27/2006 4:43:29 AM PDT by Ready4Freddy
The justice, Richard B. Sanders, visited a facility that holds sexually violent predators.
A special panel of the Washington Supreme Court made up of nine substitute judges reprimanded one of the court’s justices yesterday for visiting a facility that holds sexually violent predators.
The panel ruled that the justice, Richard B. Sanders, had “created an appearance of partiality” by questioning inmates and accepting documents from them at the McNeil Island Special Commitment Center on a visit there in January 2003. The center holds sex offenders who have completed their criminal sentences but who the courts have found are likely to engage in predatory acts of sexual violence.
A case concerning the constitutionality of the state law under which the inmates were committed was before the court at the time.
In an interview, Justice Sanders said his visit had been useful and appropriate. Judges in Washington are encouraged to visit prisons and similar facilities, he said, and he received continuing judicial education credit for his 2003 visit.
“The whole objective of this facility is supposed to be to treat the prisoners,” he said, “and I thought it was a valuable opportunity to ask the prisoners how they were doing. I thought I gained from the experience, and now I’m being punished for it.”
The sanction was admonishment, the mildest available punishment.
Justice Sanders, who ultimately disqualified himself from the pending case, said nothing he had learned could have affected the decision.
He added that the prosecutors who complained about his visit had been eager to have him off the case. “They probably think I am too inclined to uphold the rights of the accused,” Justice Sanders said.
Washington law requires lower-court judges to sit in when complaints concerning Supreme Court justices reach...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
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