Court reverses conviction because of Judge's comments making fun of attorney

Law.com is reporting that a unanimous appeals panel in New York reversed a robbery conviction and remanded the case to be tried before a different judge after it found that the trial judge ridiculed a defense attorney and criticized his arguments in front of the jury by using loaded words such as "clown," "silly," "outrageous" and "comedy." This is the fourth time in about a month I have seen news of a conviction getting reversed because of comments by a trial participant. Go here for the full story. For the other two recent cases, go here and here.