PEOPLE OF MI V LAWRENCE WHITE

Annotate this Case

Download PDF

STATE OF MICHIGAN COURT OF APPEALS PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN, UNPUBLISHED Plaintiff-Appellee, v No. 182605 Recorder’s Court LC No. 94-003885 LAWRENCE WHITE, Defendant-Appellant. Before: Sawyer, P.J., and Marilyn Kelly and D. A. Burress*, JJ. BURRESS, J. (concurring). I concur with Judge Kelly’s opinion that defendant was denied a fair trial. The prosecution argues that defendant’s complaints are based more on the trial court’s reputation than on what actually occurred during the trial. I disagree. The record here amply demonstrates that the veil of judicial impartiality was not so much pierced by any one act, but was clipped away one thread at a time until the veil was left with a gaping hole. Probably the stripping of any one of these individual threads would not itself have been sufficient to warrant the grant of a new trial. However, I agree that the cumulative effect of the trial judge’s conduct in this case was the denial of a fair trial to the defendant. I would reverse and remand for a new trial before a different judge. /s/ Daniel A. Burress * Circuit judge, sitting on the Court of Appeals by assignment. -1

Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.