Page:Walls v. State (2000).pdf/5

Rh On June 23, 1999, Judge Hanshaw conducted a resentencing hearing. Only two witnesses testified: Karen Knox, the mother of one victim, and Joy Cook, who worked for the prosecutor's office and who testified about Judge Hanshaw's meeting with the victims and their families on January 22, 1998, and the gift of the book, The Wounded Heart. Following the hearing, Judge Hanshaw sentenced Walls to three life terms and three forty-year terms. After his pronouncement of sentence, Judge Hanshaw permitted Walls to proffer into evidence the videotapes of the judge's comments to television reporters.

[1] Walls's central issue on appeal is that Judge Hanshaw erred in failing to recuse from this case prior to the second sentencing hearing. Walls concentrates on the errors committed by the judge at the first sentencing hearing, where prejudicial testimony was permitted into evidence. He further emphasizes the public comments made by the judge to the news media as well as the ex parte meeting with the victims and their families and the gift of the book. Walls points to the Arkansas Code of Judicial Conduct and specifically to three canons:

Under the rubric of Canon 3, Walls urges that Judge Hanshaw violated (1) subsection B(7) by initiating ex parte communications with the victims and their families following the first sentencing on February 4, 1998, without the presence of defense counsel, and (2) subsection B(9) by publicly commenting on a pending proceeding on both February 4, 1998, and March 4, 1999, when the comments might reasonably be expected to affect the outcome of the proceeding or affect its fairness. We agree, as already stated, that based on what we have before us, there appear to be violations of the Judicial Code.

[2-4] That leaves us with the question of whether a violation of the ethical rules set out in the Judicial Code manifests or equates to bias and, thus, ineligibility to preside over the Walls resentencing.