{"id":955,"date":"2020-12-17T14:56:21","date_gmt":"2020-12-17T19:56:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tampacriminallawyer.net\/?p=687"},"modified":"2026-01-08T06:55:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T11:55:10","slug":"florida-court-discusses-disqualifications-of-judges-in-criminal-matters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-court-discusses-disqualifications-of-judges-in-criminal-matters\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Court Discusses Disqualifications of Judges in Criminal Matters"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Judges have a duty to be fair and impartial when presiding over criminal matters, but many judges harbor implicit or explicit biases. A judge\u2019s prejudices may make it difficult or impossible to receive a fair trial, but fortunately, parties that suspect a judge of being biased can file a motion for disqualification. Recently, a Florida court issued a <a href=\"https:\/\/law.justia.com\/cases\/florida\/third-district-court-of-appeal\/2020\/3d20-1139.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">ruling describing<\/a> the grounds for granting such a motion in a case in which the defendant argued the court erred in denying his motion due to the judge\u2019s conduct during his competency hearing. If you are accused of a crime, it is important to know your rights, and it is prudent to speak to a knowledgeable Tampa criminal defense attorney as soon as possible.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>The Competency Hearing <\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Allegedly, the defendant was charged with committing numerous crimes. Prior to trial, a hearing was held to determine the defendant\u2019s competency. The State argued that the defendant was competent, while the defendant\u2019s attorney argued he was not. Three expert witnesses testified regarding the defendant\u2019s competency. The judge asked each witness regarding the information in his report. The witness who found the defendant to be incompetent stated he based his report on information from defense counsel, and the court discredited his testimony.<\/p>\n<p>It is reported that the court asked if the defendant\u2019s attorney wanted to call the defendant to the stand. She declined, after which the court stated it might be helpful for the court. The defendant then answered questions from the court about the medications he was taking and his ability to work with counsel. The court then deemed the defendant competent to stand trial, after which the defendant filed a motion to disqualify. The court denied the motion, and the defendant appealed.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-court-discusses-disqualifications-of-judges-in-criminal-matters\/#more-955\" class=\"more-link\">Continue Reading \u203a<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Judges have a duty to be fair and impartial when presiding over criminal matters, but many judges harbor implicit or explicit biases. A judge\u2019s prejudices may make it difficult or impossible to receive a fair trial, but fortunately, parties that suspect a judge of being biased can file a motion for disqualification. Recently, a Florida [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1483,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-criminal-process","category-evidence"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Disqualifying Judges in Criminal Matters<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Learn when a judge can be disqualified in Florida criminal cases and why fairness and bias concerns may require a new judge.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-court-discusses-disqualifications-of-judges-in-criminal-matters\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Disqualifying Judges in Criminal Matters\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Learn when a judge can be disqualified in Florida criminal cases and why fairness and bias concerns may require a new judge.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/judge-disqualification-florida-criminal.webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Hanlon Law, PA\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Disqualifying Judges in Criminal Matters","description":"Learn 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minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-court-discusses-disqualifications-of-judges-in-criminal-matters\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/florida-court-discusses-disqualifications-of-judges-in-criminal-matters\/"},"author":{"name":"Hanlon Law, PA","@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneytampa.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/8b1bbe17dcab105246cd4cb867e91837"},"headline":"Florida Court Discusses Disqualifications of Judges in Criminal 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