when they're standing next to Keith Richards.

Prosecutor Jay Fayette says Judge John Suddock violated the rules when he approached a state commissioner outside the courtroom and talked about a case. He wants Suddock to remove himself from the case, but Suddock is refusing to walk away, saying he did nothing wrong.

The issue in front of the court is one that has vexed state officials for years: The future of Brian Dussault, the last Alaska defendant be found not guilty of murder by reason of insanity. He is one of the last long-term killers still housed at the state's mental hospital, the Alaska Psychiatric Institute.

Fayette has taken removal of Suddock to the Alaska Court of Appeals and any question of Dussault's release is on hold until they decide. Their decision could take up to a year.

background here

At a hearing Tuesday [May 19] before Anchorage Superior Court Judge John Suddock, Dussault, 51, sat quietly with his hands cuffed in front of him. For much of the last year, he has lived in API's forensic unit, the most secure part of the hospital.

Dussault killed his wife during a schizophrenic breakdown in February 1984. In a bizarre, rambling interview with Anchorage police at the time, he said her body had been invaded by red crystal squares sent by beings trying to control everything. He emptied his semiautomatic into her, reloaded, emptied it again, thought maybe she was still coming round, so he sprayed her with water. Should have done that at the start, he told police. "They" don't like water.

Dussault is the only Alaskan found not guilty because of insanity for murder since the notorious case of Charles Meach prompted the state Legislature to make the defense much harder to use. Using an insanity defense, Meach was found not guilty of a 1973 murder. Then, in 1982 while on a day pass out of API, Meach shot and killed four teenagers in Russian Jack Park.

Meach was found guilty of the four park murders and died in prison.