At his sentencing hearing on June 28, 2002, Byron Case accused Judge Charles E. Atwell of having dozed off a number of times during the course of the trial,^[1] A few months later, Case's supporters published a number of "affidavits" in which they claimed to have seen the Judge "nod off" during the trial. It is significant that the only individuals who made such statements were friends of Case or friends of Case's mother; there was not a single disinterested third party who attested to such events. It is even more significant that one of the affiants in this matter had been ejected from the trial after its first recess, barely an hour into the trial, having spent no time observing Judge Atwell's behavior. It is further significant that one affiant was a witness for the defense, and was only in the courtroom during the few minutes of her own testimony; it is unlikely that she would have spent much time observing others (especially the judge) while giving testimony and responding to questions from both defense and prosecution counsel.

Although Case has since made no appeals based on this spurious claim, and his supporters have since removed the claims and supporting statements from their website, they still occasionally mention it when attempting to argue their case.