Prosecutorial Misconduct Megathread

[MadImmortalMan]

How would you like it if you made an innocent mistake in your job and people throw you in gaol?

We don't ruin peoples' lives for a living.

[DontSayBanana]

How would you like it if you made an innocent mistake in your job and people throw you in gaol?

There's a difference between an "innocent mistake" and manipulating evidence to ensure a favored outcome at trial.  This guy pled down- he was actually staring down the barrel of evidence tampering charges at first.

[Ideologue]

How would you like it if you made an innocent mistake in your job and people throw you in gaol?

We don't ruin peoples' lives for a living.

Damn.

Considering his behavior was so egregious that they're having to go back and reexamine every case he's handled, I don't see how that shouldn't have been a lifetime ban from practicing law.

No kidding.  That's nuts.  I can't think of anything more unethical than what he did.  If Capetan Mihali went around murdering witnesses at least that would still be zealous representation of his client.

[Razgovory]

How would you like it if you made an innocent mistake in your job and people throw you in gaol?

There's a lot of jobs like that.

[alfred russel]

How would you like it if you made an innocent mistake in your job and people throw you in gaol?

It isnt so bad. Keeps people diligent and honest and with faith in the profession.

[Berkut]

How would you like it if you made an innocent mistake in your job and people throw you in gaol?

Well, when you make mistakes in your job like this, OTHER people get thrown in gaol. Is that better, in your opinion?


And of course, nobody is going to jail for innocent mistakes. Hell, nobody apparently goes to jail for non-innocent mistakes.

[Martinus]

For the First Time Ever, a Prosecutor Will Go to Jail for Wrongfully Convicting an Innocent Man

I agree - a situation when a prosecutor, and not a jury, convicts someone seems quite dodgy.

[Martinus]

How would you like it if you made an innocent mistake in your job and people throw you in gaol?

We don't ruin peoples' lives for a living.

Yes. We do it for fun.

[dps]

I don't know if 10 days in prison for knowingly sending an innocent man to prison for 25 years seems that meaningful.

No...I'm afraid that, had I been in Michael Morton's situation, I would have given serious thought to earning those 25 years by shooting that man in the face on the steps of his home once I was released. 

Under Texas law, he became eligible to receive a lump sum based on the amount of years served in prison, plus a lifetime annuity of $80,000 per year, as well as job training and educational aid.

Not good enough.  Maybe.  I dunno.  You simply can't put a price on that.

Hmm.  How much is the lump sum, I wonder.

But yeah, I agree.  Stealing a quarter of a century from someone's life is something you can't really put a price on.

[KRonn]

How would you like it if you made an innocent mistake in your job and people throw you in gaol?

There's a difference between an "innocent mistake" and manipulating evidence to ensure a favored outcome at trial.  This guy pled down- he was actually staring down the barrel of evidence tampering charges at first.

Agreed on that. This and other similar incidents aren't mistakes, they're purposeful tampering and hiding evidence which is criminal no matter who does it.

[KRonn]

My client Roger Dean Gillispie of Dayton, Ohio, for example, spent 20 years in prison as a result of police misconduct. In 2007, we presented overwhelming evidence that the police officers, like Anderson in the Morton case, failed to turn over evidence to the defense before trial that would have cleared Gillispie. We also supplied the court with evidence that the police officer in charge had harassed and intimidated witnesses helpful to the defense, and had manipulated the evidence. Before going to court to clear Gillispie, we met with the local prosecutors, hopeful that they wouldn't tolerate such misconduct and would do a thorough (and neutral) investigation to get to the truth. Instead, they simply denied everything in knee-jerk fashion, and fought to keep Gillispie in prison until a federal court finally found government misconduct and threw out his charges in December 2011. To this day, the police officer in the case has not been investigated by a neutral, independent body. The only thing he has received is promotions.   

Damn, cases like these need some serious legal action. It's maddening that these kinds of things go unpunished so often and so easily.

The Prosecutor in the Duke lacrosse case also got some punishment I think. He was found to be hiding evidence that would clear the group. As I remember, this clown was looking at running for higher office and this kind of case would be a boon for him. Fail.

[CountDeMoney]

But yeah, I agree.  Stealing a quarter of a century from someone's life is something you can't really put a price on.

No relationship with the son that has no recollection of a father not behind bars, a murdered wife whose killer went on to kill another woman just two years later...there's no price you could put on any of that.

[DontSayBanana]

Damn, cases like these need some serious legal action. It's maddening that these kinds of things go unpunished so often and so easily.

The Prosecutor in the Duke lacrosse case also got some punishment I think. He was found to be hiding evidence that would clear the group. As I remember, this clown was looking at running for higher office and this kind of case would be a boon for him. Fail.

Duke was a little different; Nifong's omission of evidence wasn't what landed him a day in jail- he went a step further than this and actually perjured himself.  He was disbarred for his overall conduct, though, including omitting exculpatory evidence.

[Jacob]

How would you like it if you made an innocent mistake in your job and people throw you in gaol?

That is a very different perspective on people making mistakes and whether they deserve gaol as a result than we usually get from you.

[The Minsky Moment]

There is an easy way to deal with this: give criminals defendants on trial for their liberties or their life the same basic rights to discovery that are enjoyed by any litigant bringing some shaky civil case for a few thousand bucks.  Brady and similar rules will never really work because they give the prosecutor's office the discretion to decide what is exculpatory or not.  It is a fundamental break with the adversarial principle of the common law and can only give rise to mischief like these cases.