Robert Lee Russell
Judge Russell no longer hears cases. This profile is preserved as a historical record of how they ruled.
How Judge Russell decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
Russell treated evidence of unsafe working conditions and negligent tug operation as sufficient to support the jury's verdict.
“The jury could properly have found from the evidence that the master of the tug was negligent in either or both respects, in failing to ascertain that Dugas was free from danger before he allowed the line to become taut, and that Dugas had not been furnished a safe place to work.”
He emphasized the Tax Court's role in choosing among competing factual inferences when its findings had evidentiary support.
“The Tax Court has a primary function of finding the facts in tax disputes, of weighing the evidence, and choosing from among conflicting factual inferences and conclusions those which it considers most reasonable.”
Procedural preferences
Russell required state prisoners to exhaust available state procedures before seeking federal habeas relief.
“One of the.main purposes of the restrictive provisions of the second paragraph of the section was to prevent resort to the Federal Court by persons attacking State sentences until all available State procedure has been exhausted.”
He resisted using collateral proceedings as substitutes for appeals because doing so would undermine finality.
“If defendants who accept the judgment of conviction and do not appeal can later renew their attack on the judgment by habeas corpus, litigation in these criminal cases will be interminable.”
Cautions
Russell reversed a habeas denial only to require dismissal when the federal court had reached the merits before state remedies were exhausted.
“The trial Court should not have passed upon the merits of the petition, but should have dismissed the same.”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“The petition to set aside the order of the Board' is denied”
“the petition for enforcement of the order is granted.”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
Not applicable to this circuit-court record.
A historical record
Judge Russell no longer hears cases. This profile stays available as a record of how they ruled. If you're preparing for a matter, start from the court's current bench.