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Retired Judge Frank Labuda’s remarks at Angelo Johnson’s 2018 sentencing for burglary in Sullivan County were slammed by the appellate panel as being an outrageous 19th-century racist ideology that claimed that Blacks were inferior because they had smaller brains.
During Johnson's trial Labuda told him he pitied him because his brain was “probably retarded in growth” and repeatedly ordered his mouth bound with masking tape, court records show.
“It is shocking that any court, in 2018, would refer to this black defendant’s brain, frontal lobes and retardation of growth in concluding that defendant’s brain was not developed,” the judges wrote. "To invoke such reasoning today is utterly racist and has no place in our system of justice.”
Johnson's appeal lawyer, Carolyn B. George, said "The judge was discourteous and antagonistic to my client throughout the trial, which is probably why he had 5 different assigned attorneys."
Johnson was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison for burglary as a repeat felon, but he should be released as early as next month due to the appeal approval, George said.
Labuda retired in 2019 after 22 years on the bench and currently works in private practice.
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