Jacqueline Ferguson, Appellant v. State of Arkansas, Appellee

Summary

The court held that the circuit judge abused her discretion by refusing to recuse from Ferguson’s criminal trial after presiding over a dependency-neglect proceeding involving the same alleged conduct and substantially the same evidence. Because the judge’s impartiality could reasonably be questioned, the mandatory disqualification provision applied, requiring a new trial before a different judge; the court did not reach the jury-trial-waiver issue. Justice Danielson, dissenting, would have affirmed because Ferguson did not establish bias or prejudice, while Chief Justice Brill concurred and emphasized that the two proceedings concerned the same underlying matter.