VanPac News History

Copyright 1991 St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Inc.  
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

March 18, 1991, MONDAY, THREE STAR Edition

SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 5A

LENGTH: 177 words

HEADLINE: 11 JUDGES REMOVE THEMSELVES IN TRIAL OVER Bomb DEATHS

SOURCE: 1991, Cox News Service

BODY:

ATLANTA - All federal judges in the U.S. 11th Circuit have voluntarily removedthemselves from presiding over the trial of accused mail-Bomb murderer Walter Leroy Moody. The decision clears the way for U.S. Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist to appoint a special trial judge. Ten of the 11 judges in the 11th Circuit signed an order declaring that there exists ''a possibility of the appearance of impropriety.'' The only other judge, G. Ernest Tidwell, didn't agree but signed a separate order removing himself anyway, citing ''other circumstances.'' Moody is accused of mailing threatening letters to numerous federal judges, including those of the 11th Circuit, which consists of Georgia, Florida and Alabama. Federal law provides that a judge should not preside over a trial ''if there exists the possibility that an objective, disinterested lay observer . . . would entertain a significant doubt about the judge's impartiality.'' Moody is accused of mailing bombs that killed federal Judge Robert Vance and Savannah Alderman Robert Robinson.