It looked for a while like disgraced ex-speaker Jim Black might have stolen a march on Hanging Judge Jim Dever.

But Dever taught Black and his lawyers a lesson in the law and politics.

Black’s lawyers asked Dever to recuse himself from sentencing. The N&O said they “argued that Dever, a Republican and former Raleigh lawyer, had worked on a legislative redistricting lawsuit that was at odds with Black and could not be fair in the case.”

Seemed like a smart ploy. But then Dever made his chess move.

The judge refused to recuse himself. But he said he would step down anyway. And he delivered a stinging broadside against Black. As the N&O reported:

Dever wrote in a 64-page order that he wanted to bring the Black case to a quick end while reducing cynicism and promoting public confidence in the justice system.

“That closure will not come if Black can try to direct the focus of this criminal case away from the reality of his own corruption,” wrote Dever, who included other harsh words for the former speaker.

“…Black’s federal criminal case concerns the stark reality of public corruption in the highest Office in the House,” Dever wrote. “… [T]his court cannot ignore the extraordinary level of cynicism that Black’s guilty pleas in this court and in state court have created within the body politic in North Carolina.”

Dever wrote that “the only thing that remains to be done is for a federal judge to prepare for Black’s sentencing hearing, to conduct that hearing, and then to sentence Black.”

In other words, memo to the next judge: Throw the book at this guy. And the next judge apparently will be Terry Boyle. Who Democrats blocked from the U.S. Court of Appeals.

Good luck, Mr. Speaker.

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