Improper involvement by a judge in plea bargaining doesn’t automatically mean a guilty plea must be tossed out, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Thursday.
The 9-0 decision came in a federal tax fraud case out of Augusta. The high court called remarks by a federal magistrate judge who handled the case "beyond the pale." But it added that the Atlanta-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit should have considered, before tossing the conviction, whether the remarks actually led the defendant to plead guilty.
