United States Supreme Court

In a petition pursuant to Pennsylvania's Post Conviction Relief Act (PCRA), arguing that the prosecutor had obtained false testimony from his codefendant and suppressed material, exculpatory evidence in violation of Brady v. Maryland, 373 U. S. 83, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision, whose chief justice was former District Attorney Castille, vacating the PCRA's stay of execution and denying petitioner's motion for recusal of the chief justice is reversed where: 1) the chief justice's denial of the recusal motion and his subsequent judicial participation violated the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment; and 2) an unconstitutional failure to recuse constitutes structural error that is "not amenable" to harmless-error review, regardless of whether the judge's vote was dispositive, Puckett v. US, 556 U.S. 129, 141.

Appellate Information

• Published 2016/06/09

Judges

• KENNEDY

Court

• United States Supreme Court

Counsel