08 August 2018 :

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has upheld the Nevada federal district court's grant of a new trial to  Jose Echavarria (see January 16, 2015). The court ruled that there was a "constitutionally intolerable risk of judicial bias" in Echavarria case when the trial judge in his case had been the subject of an FBI investigation for possible criminal prosecution that was conducted by the FBI special agent who was the victim in Echavarria's case, and Echavarria was never told of the connection between the FBI agent and the judge.