SYDNEY - Australia's High Court said on Thursday it had overturned the convictions of two alleged drug traffickers because the judge regularly fell asleep during their trial.
The court heard that Judge Ian Dodd slept for periods of up to 20 minutes at a time, sometimes snoring, during the trial in 2004.
Members of the jury were visibly distracted and sometimes amused, while court officials resorted to dropping documents loudly in a bid to wake the napping judge.
Dodd, who was found to suffer from sleep apnoea, retired in July 2005.
The two alleged drug dealers, Rafael Cesan and Ruben Mas Rivadavia, were jailed for 13-and-a-half years and 11 years respectively after being convicted of conspiring to import ecstasy.
The High Court upheld their appeal against their convictions, ruling that Judge Dodd did not exercise supervision of the trial as required by law and, as a result, the jury was distracted.
'Where the judge is noticeably and repeatedly asleep or inattentive during the trial, there can be a miscarriage of justice,' said Chief Justice Robert French.
