Delaware Superior Court Judge Diane Clarke Streett’s behavior in a felony assault trial was so unusual, the Delaware Supreme Court, in a rare split decision, voided the defendant’s convictions and ruled that a retrial would be barred under the double-jeopardy doctrine.
“Taken together, the sum total of the trial judge’s conduct is so strikingly different from that normally characteristic of her judicial colleagues that it reasonably supports the inference that she was intent on not handling a criminal trial that week and therefore engaged in conduct having the logical and intended effect of causing defense counsel to request a mistrial,” said Chief Justice Leo E. Strine Jr. in Butler v. State.
