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What happens if the judge by some chance witnesses the crime? Has this ever happened?
Or is the judge always picked in such a way that they could never be a witness? (Out of fears of bias or whatever)

I was thinking about ancient or medieval situations where the ruler would witness a crime and order a punishment directly, since he didn't need more convincing, and they were judges for all intents and purposes once upon a time. I guess they can't do that today anymore, but what would happen if a judge today would witness the crime directly and just happen to be deciding in the court case?

Let's say for example the judges in some location happen to be visiting a security facility for some guided tour or whatever, and they get to see the security cameras just as somebody is burglarizing the monitored building, so you can only get "non-witness judges" from out-of-state or another region. The lawsuit hasn't begun yet, and all of the possible, local judges saw it happen.
How does it affect the process? Is the defendant automatically prevented from pleading not guilty? Is evidence still necessary, is the process just a formality then? What effects would it have on the process and verdict themselves?

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There is one context where this does happen.

Common law judges have direct contempt power.

This means that while a judge is in the courtroom presiding over a case, the judge can summarily punish someone with incarceration and/or a fine without a trial for "contempt of court" because the judge has personally observed what has happened. Contempt of court encompasses types of disorderly conduct that wouldn't otherwise be criminal conduct.

In other contexts, the judge is just one more witness and would not be assigned to handle the case.

so you can only get "non-witness judges" from out-of-state or another region. The lawsuit hasn't begun yet, and all of the possible, local judges saw it happen.

As a practical matter, this is basically impossible. But there are procedures in cases where large numbers of judges a conflicted out of a case, for example, to get a judge from the next county over or another part of the same state.

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  • What if there is no directly equivalent judge? For example, what if courtroom violence occurs in a session of the state supreme court or SCOTUS and it ends up back in front of them (death penalty)? Perhaps a special master would be appointed?
    – user71659
    Commented Apr 7, 2023 at 3:35
  • @user71659 This doesn't make sense. An appellate court does also have direct contempt power. But a direct contempt citation, while it can be appealed up, never goes down the chain of appeals. If SCOTUS holds you in direct contempt, that's it. No appeal. If a state supreme court does, the only appeal is to SCOTUS and only on issues of federal law.
    – ohwilleke
    Commented Apr 7, 2023 at 15:08
  • I'm not talking about contempt, I'm referring to "other contexts".
    – user71659
    Commented Apr 8, 2023 at 1:07
  • I'm a little confused. It sounds like you're saying that in common law jurisdictions a judge can punish someone without a trial if they witnessed the crime, but in other jurisdictions the judge will not be assigned the case because they were a witness. But your use of the word "context" rather than "jurisdiction" makes me think I'm misunderstanding. Can you clarify what exactly are the different contexts you're talking about?
    – T Hummus
    Commented Apr 8, 2023 at 18:15
  • @THummus "in common law jurisdictions a judge can punish someone without a trial if they witnessed the crime," if the crime takes place in their courtroom (a legacy of the days when lords presided personally over trials). " but in other jurisdictions the judge will not be assigned the case because they were a witness" conflating two points. First, in civil law jurisdictions a judge can't punish someone for a trial they witnesses in their courtroom. Second, in all jurisdictions, if a judge sees a crime committed outside the courtroom another judge handles the case.
    – ohwilleke
    Commented Apr 9, 2023 at 17:41
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A material witness would not be assigned

The case would go to another judge.

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Well, there's an interesting rule in Robert's Rules of Order for doing judicial action within meetings of an organization which has regular meetings. This came up when we needed to fire someone.

Evidence needs to be admitted by testimony in the meetings. The defendant has the opportunity to cross-examine that evidence, and to give them that opportunity, a lengthy notice requirement is required, during which time they would know they were under disciplinary review. We rightly feared malicious behavior from that person in the interim, before they were stripped of authority.

However, Robert's Rules says that anything that happens inside a meeting does not need to be admitted as evidence, since it already was admitted because the evidence was created inside a meeting. The person's past behavior inside meetings was sufficient to convict. So just like that, it was over. No lengthy process.

But back to your question: if a judge is walking down the street and sees something, that doesn't carry any specialness other than that the judge will be deemed a pretty reliable witness. However, if something happens in the middle of a convened court, different deal.

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Interesting question. The law has of course changed a lot since medieval times. The King's word is no longer the law. Justice can not be executed on a whim. We have courts and a system. Thge judge that witnessed a crime would be conflicted off the case.

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    – Community Bot
    Commented Apr 7, 2023 at 9:54
  • 1
    In a courtroom something very akin to the judge executing justice on a whim still exists.
    – ohwilleke
    Commented Apr 7, 2023 at 15:06

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