JUDGE'S POT USE LEADS TO DEATH ROW HEARING

A federal appeals court ordered a new hearing for an Arizona death row
inmate yesterday because the judge who sentenced him to death admitted
later that he was a chronic marijuana user.

In a 2-to-1 ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco said
Warren Summerlin would be entitled to a new penalty trial if his
lawyers could show that Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Philip
Marquardt was under the influence of marijuana when he was considering
Summerlin's sentence in 1982. In Arizona, unlike California, the death
sentence is decided by the trial judge without a jury.

Summerlin was convicted of sexually assaulting and murdering Brenna
Bailey, who had gone to his home to collect a debt.

A drug-impaired judge, like a judge who accepts bribes, deprives a
defendant of the untainted judgment required for a fair trial, wrote
Judge Stephen Trott. Dissenting Judge Alex Kozinski said there was no
evidence that Marquardt was impaired during the trial and warned that
the ruling would invite thousands of dubious appeals by inmates who
claimed their trial judges suffered mental infirmities.

Marquardt, a judge for 20 years, resigned in 1991 after his second
marijuana conviction.