In a nod toward transparency in the court system, Faulkner County District Judge Chris Carnahan has taken to livestreaming some of the proceedings in his court on Facebook. That’s a good thing, as courts — like any branch of government — benefit from sunlight. 

Without these livestreams, the general public would have no way of knowing that Carnahan says some truly outlandish and unprofessional stuff, right there in open court. 

District Judge Chris Carnahan, June 18, 2026

That’s a clip from around the 25:44 mark of Carnahan’s June 18 livestream. A man named Tyler Greer had just entered a not guilty plea to charges of breaking or entering, theft by receiving, and theft of property, some or all of which was related to allegations that Greer broke into someone’s car.

Just after setting Greer’s bond ($7,500), Carnahan says to the prosecuting attorney, “I don’t know why … breaking into your car … I find you breaking into my car, I’ll kill ya. Break into my house, I’ll kill ya.”

Regardless of how you feel about someone accused of breaking into a car, Greer, like any defendant, is innocent until proven guilty. Carnahan’s comments are incredibly inappropriate and seem to violate several rules of judicial conduct.

First off, Rule 1.2 of the Arkansas Code of Judicial Conduct says, “A judge shall act at all times in a manner that promotes public confidence in the independence, integrity, and impartiality of the judiciary, and shall avoid impropriety and the appearance of impropriety.” A judge spouting off about what he would do if a hypothetical crime happened to him clouds the concept of impartiality. (This is the reasoning behind why federal judges generally decline to answer hypotheticals during confirmation hearings, since saying what you would do in a specific situation undermines the idea of impartiality.)

Additionally, Rule 2.2 requires a judge to act impartially in the administration of justice, while Rule 2.3 says “A judge shall not, in the performance of judicial duties, by words or conduct manifest bias or prejudice.” In this case, we have a judge implying that he would have shot a guy who is still legally innocent, based only on the allegation that this guy broke into someone’s car.

There is also Rule 2.10, which explicitly prohibits a judge from making “any public statement that might reasonably be expected to affect the outcome or impair the fairness of a matter pending or impending in any court.” Whether this kind of comment rises to that level is debatable, but the mere fact that we could even have that debate illustrates the problem with Carnahan’s flippant comments.

One other aspect probably worth noting here: Carnahan’s comment about killing someone if he found them breaking into his car is contrary to the law. There is no right to use deadly force to protect personal property in Arkansas. A judge overseeing a criminal court should know this.

This isn’t the first time Carnahan’s judicial temperament has been questioned. In 2023, he sentenced someone to 10 days in jail for a nonviolent protest outside a Conway School District meeting. A former executive director of the state Republican party, Carnahan also faced questions about partisan campaigning for a non-partisan judicial race in 2022.