What's Up with Michigan Judges and Duct Tape?

On Monday, Ottawa County Circuit Judge John Hulsing said that he would use duct tape if necessary to silence defendant Ryan Wyngarden, who launched into an hour-long tirade during his sentencing in the double homicide of his sister and brother-in-law in 1987, WZZM, Channel 13, reports.

Hulsing sentenced Wyngarden to two life sentences in the murders, but not before the defendant accused the judge of lying, said detectives “mentally raped” his wife and coerced her testimony against him, and continued to proclaim his innocence in the killings of Gail and Rick Brink.

Last Wednesday, a judge in Jackson County Circuit Court threatened to use duct tape to silence a woman who reportedly snickered and rolled her eyes when a family member of a man she had stabbed multiple times gave a victim impact statement.

“You're going to shut your mouth or I'm going to have some duct tape put on it. You were relentless. You stabbed. You stabbed. You stabbed. You stabbed. You stabbed until he was dead," Judge John McBain said, according to a report on WJBK, Channel 2.

"I hope you die in prison,” he said. “If this was a death penalty state, you'd be getting the chair."