Prosecutorial Misconduct is a Crime
Attorneys Who Are Guilty Should Be Punished
Wrongful convictions in this country are nothing new to the criminal justice system. They are as old as the system itself, and they will continue to exist as long as the fallibility of human judgment continues. But there is a disturbing trend in this country: the vast majority of prosecutors often go unpunished for intentional misconduct that leads to a wrongful conviction.
This prosecutorial misconduct is disturbing enough, but the fact that these individuals do not get punished for that misconduct is atrocious. It is unmistakable that they are breaking the law. The U.S. Supreme Court said in Brady v. Maryland (1963) that prosecutors have an affirmative duty to turn over all evidence to the defendant, even if that evidence is exculpatory, i.e., it tends to show that he is not guilty.
Sadly, prosecutors should willingly turn over evidence especially if it is exculpatory, but in the real world of pressure on prosecutors to obtain guilty verdicts, that simply isn’t the case. They are faced with immense pressure to win cases. If they don’t, they can start looking for another job. That, however, is no excuse for breaking the law.
So, what happens to a prosecutor if he intentionally withholds exculpatory evidence? Usually nothing. The only punishment he is likely to receive is some sort of disciplinary action from the bar. But even that is usually nothing more than a reprimand or probation.
The notion that these prosecutors could engage in such deceit is appalling considering the fact that doing so often means the difference in whether a defendant will go free, or even worse—in a death penalty case—the difference between life and death. But because this deed goes unpunished, it makes a mockery of the American justice system. What’s worse, most prosecutors balk at the idea that they should face criminal penalties for withholding evidence, apparently not considering for one second the fact that most of them would be screaming for blood if they were in the defendant’s shoes.
One such prosecutor, however, is bucking the trend. Dallas County District Attorney, Craig Watkins, whose county leads the nation in DNA exonerations, says something has to be done. He recently told The Dallas Morning News that the worst offenders should receive prison time.
This comes in the wake of the latest exoneration in Dallas County. James Lee Woodard was convicted of murder in 1981. Prosecutors, however, failed to tell defense counsel that there were three men with the victim right before she was raped, which obviously would have raised serious doubt about Woodard’s guilt. Woodard was freed this year after DNA proved that he did not commit the crime. He spent 27 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit; the prosecutors will not receive any punishment for a crime that they did commit. That, by any stretch of the imagination, is not equal treatment under the law.
There are hundreds of other examples of prosecutorial misconduct, perhaps the most shocking detailed in John Grisham's, The Innocent Man. Frankly, it’s a wonder that the prosecutors in that case can even sleep at night after breaking the law, which caused a man the unspeakable horror of being sent to death row for a crime that he didn’t commit.
Of course these examples are few compared to the millions of defendants in this country who are actually guilty. And most prosecutors are not unethical; they do difficult work to the best of their ability and play within the rules. But as in any profession, there are bad apples who give a black eye to the profession. According to The Innocence Project, a non-profit litigation group that works to free innocent persons through DNA testing, 33 of their first 74 exonerations freed innocent men who were locked up because of prosecutorial misconduct. Of those 33, the leading cause was prosecutors withholding exculpatory evidence.
Until the justice system starts punishing these prosecutors, this repugnant activity will continue, because with no punishment system in place, what incentive do prosecutors have to turn over exculpatory evidence?
The American justice system is based on the rule of law, the idea that there are consequences for everyone who steps outside the boundaries of those rules. No one is above the law, and prosecutors who break it should stop getting a free pass.
