If this recent death-penalty panel decision is any indication, 5th Circuit Chief Judge Carl Stewart is taking very seriously a June 4 complaint alleging "racial bias" against his 5th Circuit colleague Judge Edith Jones.

On June 11, Stewart wrote a 2-1 unpublished decision reassigning a last-minute appeal from a panel comprised of himself, Jones and Judge James Dennis to a new panel of 5th Circuit Judges W. Eugene Davis, Edith Brown Clement and Stephen Higginson.