Report: Prosecutor misconduct is "widespread and ingrained" in criminal justice system

[davidn3600]

WASHINGTON, DC, Sep 18, 2013 (Marketwired via COMTEX) -- A report released today concludes prosecutor misconduct is widespread and ingrained in our nation's criminal justice system. Only rarely does prosecutor misconduct result in the imposition of sanctions. The report, issued by the non-partisan Center for Prosecutor Integrity, calls for fundamental reform of the oversight policies for the nation's 30,000 prosecutors.

And according to a recent Center for Prosecutor Integrity survey, 43% of persons nationwide believe prosecutorial misconduct is widespread.

Prosecutor misconduct takes many forms, including charging a suspect with more crimes than warranted, concealing evidence, coercing witnesses, and making misleading statements to the jury.

Unethical prosecutors know that judges seldom report the misconduct to state bar associations, and even when they do, sanctions are imposed in only 1-2% of cases, the report reveals.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/prosecutor-misconduct-is-widespread-extends-to-highest-levels-cpi-report-reveals-2013-09-18

[Donald Ian Rankin]

1. I'm not convinced misleading (as opposed to lying to) a jury is always misconduct.

The point of an adversarial system is that there are two people in the courtroom whose job is not to see justice done, but to get a particular result by any legitimate means.

Lying to a jury clearly *isn't* legitimate, but spinning the truth quite hard arguably is.

The other entries on the list, of course, clearly aren't.

[defacto7]

3. The adversarial system is an ass. n/t

[JDPriestly]

4. There isn't anything better. It's probably the only way that parties to a lawsuit or a prosecution

can get a fair hearing. It's flawed, but it's the best way to resolve disputes and determine guilt and innocence.

[whttevrr]

5. This makes me think otherwise:

From the article:

To date, over 1,200 persons have been proven to have been wrongfully convicted. According to the National Registry of Exonerations, 43% of wrongful convictions arise from misconduct by prosecutors and other government officials.

This is not ok.

[quakerboy]

7. The question that leaves me with

Is are those 43% of wrongful convictions due to innocence or due to a defense lawyer finding a technicality that results in a "wrongful conviction" overturning, regardless of guilt or innocence?

The answer to that would seem to indicate the direction to go toward fixing the problem.

[soryang]

9. what difference does that make?

the law is the law. your "technicality" is what most lawyers call the Bill of Rights.

[Laelth]

10. Well said. n/t

-Laelth

[woo me with science]

13. Thank you. nt

[Donald Ian Rankin]

15. The difference is "should we change the law to make it legal to do those things?"

If innocent people are being sent to jail because prosecutor action and the letter of the law do not coincide, we should get prosecutors to act differently.

If guilty people are being let out because prosecutor action and the letter of the law do not coincide, we should consider changing the law to make it legal for prosecutors to act in those ways.

Remember: the point of legal protections and due process is *not* "to guarantee a fair trial", or anything abstract like that, it's to minimise the number of innocent people sent to jail. If a legal protection protects both the innocent and the guilty, we may well need to keep it even if it does result in criminals getting away with things, but if it's *only*, or almost only, protecting guilty people, it should be abolished (and I suspect that some admissibility criteria may come into this category, although I confess that that's pure speculation with very little information to back it up).

[quakerboy]

17. The difference it makes

is whether we need to teach prosecutors to cross all their t's and more carefully hold themselves to high ethical standards
or whether we have a massive miscarriage of justice that needs to be dealt with harshly and with wholesale systemic change.

If its a matter of convictions overturned on a technicality, then we have a problem with lazy prosecutors who are not properly doing what they are supposed to do. Its a basic job training and standards issue. Like teaching your salesmen a better selling technique, or teaching your managers how not to micromanage people.

If its a matter of innocent people convicted, we have a much larger issue with prosecutors going after innocent people. Thats not good and would be, in my mind a more fundamental and serious problem.

So yeah.. Its not, despite your snark , anything about the "bill of rights". Its about how we move to solve a problem. Understanding the nature of the problem you have is a very basic starting place toward finding the correct solution. Otherwise you end up taking Antibiotics to help with a viral infection, which helps no one.

[whttevrr]

11. "It is better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer" W. Blackstone

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackstone%27s_formulation

Other commentators have echoed the principle; Benjamin Franklin stated it as, "it is better 100 guilty Persons should escape than that one innocent Person should suffer"

[davidn3600]

20. John Adams too

"It is more important that innocence should be protected, than it is, that guilt be punished; for guilt and crimes are so frequent in this world, that all of them cannot be punished.... when innocence itself, is brought to the bar and condemned, especially to die, the subject will exclaim, 'it is immaterial to me whether I behave well or ill, for virtue itself is no security.' And if such a sentiment as this were to take hold in the mind of the subject that would be the end of all security whatsoever."
-John Adams

The thing is...I think our society is wanting to flip this mentality. People think it's more important that guilt be punished, otherwise guilty people won't fear the system. Look what happens when the system acquits someone who the public thinks is guilty....there is outrage. People attack the jury, the lawyers, the judge. Look at DU after Zimmerman was acquitted.

[cthulu2016]

18. No, no, no, no, no

If the adversarial system was supposed to be even we wouldn't have the bill of rights, presumption of innocence, etc..

The prosecution represents THE STATE and, as such, has a higher obligation.

Seriously, if you believe what you just said (thankfully you do not) you would be saying that you are okay with the conviction of the innocent based on the state misleading jurors.

(The alternative is that you think the state should only be able to mislead the jury in cases where the defendant is guilty, which is even scarier.)

[Th1onein]

24. Spinning is just another form of lying.

It's called a "JUSTICE" system for a REASON.

[defacto7]

2. This is true. A fact. n/t

[blkmusclmachine]

6. .

.

[soryang]

8. the judges don't care either

the overwhelming majority act like they have a vested personal interest in convicting the accused rather than being fair and impartial. of course, if there are cameras or reporters in the courtroom, then they put on act of being impartial. you know, like Mannings military judge. the fact is that most judges are authoritarian personalities.

[Baitball Blogger]

12. We have a constipated justice system.

Especially if we know these things are going on. Sounds like judges should be held accountable as accessories to crime.

[mnmoderatedem]

14. Reason #1 why the death penalty should be abolished

yes, prosecutorial misconduct happens in capital cases.

[Comrade Grumpy]

16. The system is rotten and plagued with corruption.

And then there's the cops.

[The Magistrate]

19. Prosecutors And Police Need Jail Time For 'Mis-Conduct' ( A Euphemism For Criminal Actions )

If a conviction is overturned for prosecutorial mis-conduct or police mis-conduct, the prosecutor or the officer should immediately be packed off to serve the same sentence the person wrongfully convicted was given. If that was a death sentence, execution should be carried out immediately, without any possibility of appeal or review.

[gopiscrap]

21. Absolutely

all P.O.'s, Cops, Judges and Prosecutors are a bunch of crooked, lying ass wipes.

[indepat]

22. Prosecutorial misconduct drives a stake in the heart of justice, the rule of law, equal justice

under the law, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, freedom, and you name it, yet is so widespread as to be, imo, a malignancy eating at the very heart, soul, and conscience of America.

[Trillo]

23. Reminds of this story this morning

Judge Throws Out Officers’ Convictions in Killings After Hurricane Katrina
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014597367