Beware of hungry judges.

• Position: Justice - Brief article

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People who find themselves on the wrong side of the law now have one more thing to worry about: how recently the judge ate. A new study from Israel shows a strong link between when judges ate and how sympathetic they were to prisoners' appeals for parole. Researchers tracked eight Israeli judges who ruled in more than 1,000 cases over 10 months. Inmates who presented their appeals in the early morning had a 65 percent chance of success; the rate fell to zero right before a judge's morning coffee break. It jumped back to 65 percent after the break, and down to zero again just before lunch, with the pattern...