UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT DECISIONS ON-LINE

A Michigan state judge served as a "one-man grand jury" under Michigan law in investigating crime. Later, the same judge, after a hearing in open court, adjudged two of the witnesses guilty of contempt and sentenced them to punishment for events which took place before him in the grand jury proceedings.

Held: their trial and conviction for contempt before the same judge violated the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Pp. 349 U. S. 133-139.

The power of a trial judge to punish for a contempt committed in his immediate presence in open court is not applicable to the contempt proceeding here. P. 349 U. S. 137.

340 Mich. 140, 65 N.W.2d 296, and 340 Mich. 151, 65 N.W.2d 301, reversed.