Chesley Eugene Saunders v. Mark S. Inch, Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections, et al.
DueProcess HabeasCorpus TradeSecret
Whether the Due Process Clause and the Constitutional Guarantees of a Fundamentally Fair Trial permit a criminal trial to be presided over by a judge who was the defendant's former attorney
QUESTIONS PRESENTED 1. Whether the Due Process Clause of the United States Constitution and the Constitutional Guarantees of a Fundamentally Fair Trial permit a criminal trial to be presided over by a judge who was the defendant's former attorney, who the client had discharged for professional misconduct, on a substantially related case, and where the trial judge issued a ruling concerning the admissibility of the underlying facts of the prior case, with which the court had confidential information by virtue of the prior representation, that negatively impacted the defendant? 2. Whether the Sixth Amendment guarantee of effective assistance of counsel permits a defense lawyer, who had worked in the same office as the trial judge, who knew and had reason to know that the trial judge had previously represented the defendant on a substantially and closely related matter, to fail to move to recuse the judge and fail to present a defense?