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The scene was a packed auditorium at UC Santa Barbara; the time, late last month. Two prominent legal figures were debating the death penalty.
Defense attorney Gerry Spence turned to federal appeals court Judge Alex Kozinski, an outspoken supporter of capital punishment, and accused the judge of being detached from the reality of death row.
"I would urge his honor to go to a prison and see" how condemned inmates live, Spence said.
Kozinski did not respond to Spence's remark. The truth would have been far too complicated to reveal in a debate.
Four months earlier, Kozinski had done just what Spence was demanding. After an on-and-off correspondence stretching over five years, he had visited an inmate at San Quentin, a man named Michael W. Hunter, a murderer and a fellow writer.
In a meeting of 30 to 40 minutes, the two talked about life on death row, writing and the cases of at least three other inmates.
As a result, the 52-year-old judge -- a Reagan appointee and a leading conservative on the federal bench -- is now the subject of an investigation by the California attorney general's office.
Prosecutors have written to Mary M. Schroeder, the chief judge of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, on which Kozinski sits, questioning whether he "can continue to be a fair and impartial member of any 9th Circuit panel, now or in the future, deciding California capital cases."
Until a panel of judges can investigate further, state prosecutors say, Kozinski should be barred from hearing any California death penalty cases.
It is a demand without precedent, according to several legal scholars. In the history of the federal courts, they say, they know of no occasion when a federal appellate judge has been disqualified from hearing an entire category of cases even on a temporary basis.
Schroeder has asked Kozinski, whose chambers are in Pasadena, to respond to the state's letter. Thus far he has declined.
"I wrote to him and asked him to tell me what happened," Schroeder said Friday. "I can't comment further until I have heard from him, and I haven't heard from him."
In an interview, Kozinski, who gave The Times a copy of the prosecutors' letter, insisted that he has done nothing wrong.
If a case involving Hunter ever came before his court, he would not take part, he said. "I certainly don't think it will affect my judgment" on other capital cases, Kozinski said about his meeting with Hunter.
The attorney general's actions, said Kozinski, are "crazy."
In his 17 years as an appellate judge, 49 men have been executed in the seven states overseen by the 9th Circuit which have death rows; 10 executions were in California. Kozinski has not voted to block a single one.
"If anyone is going to go after me for the things I have said," he says, "I think it would be the other side."
Irrepressible Intellect
Amid the many smart, but staid, judges on the federal appellate courts, Alex Kozinski stands out both for his intellect and for his irrepressibility. He is known for his scholarship and the lucidity of his writing, but also for his occasional bungee jumps.
His parents, both survivors of the Nazi Holocaust, brought him to the United States from Romania in 1962. He was 12 and spoke limited English. After a time, the family settled in Los Feliz, where Kozinski's father, Moses, ran a small grocery store.
Defense attorney Gerry Spence turned to federal appeals court Judge Alex Kozinski, an outspoken supporter of capital punishment, and accused the judge of being detached from the reality of death row.
"I would urge his honor to go to a prison and see" how condemned inmates live, Spence said.
Kozinski did not respond to Spence's remark. The truth would have been far too complicated to reveal in a debate.
Four months earlier, Kozinski had done just what Spence was demanding. After an on-and-off correspondence stretching over five years, he had visited an inmate at San Quentin, a man named Michael W. Hunter, a murderer and a fellow writer.
In a meeting of 30 to 40 minutes, the two talked about life on death row, writing and the cases of at least three other inmates.
As a result, the 52-year-old judge -- a Reagan appointee and a leading conservative on the federal bench -- is now the subject of an investigation by the California attorney general's office.
Prosecutors have written to Mary M. Schroeder, the chief judge of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, on which Kozinski sits, questioning whether he "can continue to be a fair and impartial member of any 9th Circuit panel, now or in the future, deciding California capital cases."
Until a panel of judges can investigate further, state prosecutors say, Kozinski should be barred from hearing any California death penalty cases.
It is a demand without precedent, according to several legal scholars. In the history of the federal courts, they say, they know of no occasion when a federal appellate judge has been disqualified from hearing an entire category of cases even on a temporary basis.
Schroeder has asked Kozinski, whose chambers are in Pasadena, to respond to the state's letter. Thus far he has declined.
"I wrote to him and asked him to tell me what happened," Schroeder said Friday. "I can't comment further until I have heard from him, and I haven't heard from him."
In an interview, Kozinski, who gave The Times a copy of the prosecutors' letter, insisted that he has done nothing wrong.
If a case involving Hunter ever came before his court, he would not take part, he said. "I certainly don't think it will affect my judgment" on other capital cases, Kozinski said about his meeting with Hunter.
The attorney general's actions, said Kozinski, are "crazy."
In his 17 years as an appellate judge, 49 men have been executed in the seven states overseen by the 9th Circuit which have death rows; 10 executions were in California. Kozinski has not voted to block a single one.
"If anyone is going to go after me for the things I have said," he says, "I think it would be the other side."
Irrepressible Intellect
Amid the many smart, but staid, judges on the federal appellate courts, Alex Kozinski stands out both for his intellect and for his irrepressibility. He is known for his scholarship and the lucidity of his writing, but also for his occasional bungee jumps.
His parents, both survivors of the Nazi Holocaust, brought him to the United States from Romania in 1962. He was 12 and spoke limited English. After a time, the family settled in Los Feliz, where Kozinski's father, Moses, ran a small grocery store.
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