Upon consideration of petitioner/defendant-appellant Glenn Kiyohiko Mizukami's motion for clarification, filed on August 24, 2009,
IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the motion for clarification is denied. (2)
DATED: Honolulu, Hawai‘i, September 9, 2009.
1. Considered by: Moon, C.J., Nakayama, Acoba, and Duffy, JJ., and Circuit Judge Hifo, in place of Recktenwald, J., recused.
2. It may be noted that (1)
Associate Justice Mark E. Recktenwald was on the intermediate court of
appeals' merit panel
that decided petitioner's case; (2) Associate Justice Paula A. Nakayama
served temporarily as acting chief justice on
August 17, 2009 due to the absence of the Chief Justice; see Hawai‘i Constitution,
article VI, section 2; HRS § 602-3
(1993); and (3) Circuit Judge Eden E. Hifo was assigned as
substitute justice by random draw from the available pool of all
circuit judges; see
Hawai‘i Constitution, article VI, section 2; HRS § 602-10 (Supp.
2008). See Hawai‘i
Revised Code of
Judicial Conduct Rule 2.1(a) ("Subject to the rule of necessity, a
judge shall disqualify or recuse himself or herself in any
proceeding in which the judge's impartiality might reasonably be
questioned[.]"); see also
HRS § 601-7(a)(2) (Supp. 2008)
(stating, in pertinent part, that "[n]o person shall sit as a judge in
any case in which[ ] . . . an appeal [is] from any decision or
judgment rendered by the judge").