Sixth Circuit Affirms Death Penalty After 25-Year-Old Jury Waiver

In 1971, man pleads guilty to killing his wife. After a few years behind bars he gets out, gets a girlfriend, and then kills her. He agrees to trust his fate to a 3-judge panel (whose identities he knows ahead of time) instead of a jury. Which gives him the death penalty. And after some appeals gives him another one. Later he wins at the Sixth Circuit in 2007 to receive another resentencing. Only problem is it's been so long that all 3 judges are dead or retired. So they use a new 3-judge panel. Which gives him the death penalty. Sixth Circuit (2024, en banc 9-6): Which is fine because “the law considers judges fungible." Habeas denied. Dissent: Not fine because he waived a jury for the original 3 named judges, not any old judges.