Judges "supervising their own dreams" at jury trials - Kansas style

In an interesting case from Kansas, a criminal conviction after a jury trial was overturned because the judge was - literally - sleeping during portions of the jury trial.

The sleeping #judgeBenjaminBurgess,

a longtime former prosecutor, was reportedly a former ethics attorney for Koch Industries and a former U.S. Attorney.

Count on an "honorable" expert in ethics to nap while presiding over a criminal jury trial. 

What is even more interesting was that there was a dissent.

One judge, a longtime former prosecutor #MichaelBuser, 

opposed reversal of conviction claiming that the defendant was not prejudiced when the judge put in their to supervise the trial, was, as the majority opinion put it, was only supervising his own dreams.


Count on a former prosecutor supporting his brother - former prosecutor - no matter what he does.

But, here is a question - if a criminal defendant was not prejudiced when the presiding judge was sleeping at the trial, why do we need judges at the trial?

Maybe, we eliminate them altogether - that will make things so much easier? And without any prejudice...