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Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Courts - More on "A Standard for Fair Trials"

Yesterday in a very brief entry the ILB linked to a column in the Washington Post proposing new rules to address problems of prosecutorial misconduct. Here is how the column, by Albert D. Brault and Timothy F. Maloney, began:

When dismissing the charges against former Alaska senator Ted Stevens recently, the trial judge noted that the prosecutorial failures to turn over exculpatory evidence in that case were symptomatic of a larger problem within the Justice Department. Indeed, such failures are happening across our criminal justice system.

Three weeks ago, the Supreme Court ordered further review of the murder conviction of a Vietnam veteran because a Tennessee prosecutor withheld witness statements that contradicted the state's version of the case.

Last month a federal judge cited "serious, serious problems here in the way evidence has been selectively produced" in an environmental crimes prosecution against the chemical and material company W.R. Grace, which was ultimately acquitted.

In February, the conviction in a notorious Texas murder case was overturned because the prosecution failed to disclose that a key eyewitness had failed to identify the defendant in a photo lineup and that later prosecutors showed the witness a photo of the defendant to help him identify the accused at trial.

Today this report in the Boston Globe by Jonathan Saltzman adds another example:
The chief judge of the US District Court in Massachusetts held off yesterday on sanctioning a federal prosecutor who has acknowledged that she withheld evidence that could have cleared a defendant in a gun case.

Judge Mark L. Wolf said Assistant US Attorney Suzanne Sullivan's actions were "inexcusable" though inadvertent and reflect a "fundamentally flawed understanding of her obligations, or a reckless disregard of them." Nonetheless, he said, Sullivan appears "genuinely contrite," and he will wait at least six months to decide whether to sanction her or the US attorney's office.

In addition, Wolf announced that two federal judges will lead an educational program in the fall for prosecutors, defense lawyers, and judges about the duty to turn over evidence collected by police to defendants. Wolf said repeated failures by the US attorney's office in Massachusetts to turn over so-called discovery evidence made him doubt that the Justice Department was adequately training prosecutors.

Wolf said that if he finds that a prosecutor intentionally withholds evidence from defendants, he will order criminal contempt proceedings that could lead to a conviction and imprisonment.

"The prosecution of a criminal case is not a game to be played casually or thoughtlessly," Wolf said in his 49-page court filing. "Many years of a man's life were at stake in the suppression hearing."

Posted by Marcia Oddi on May 19, 2009 09:21 AM
Posted to Courts in general