Prosecutorial Misconduct

Putting the Brakes on Philly's Death Penalty

David A. Love | Posted 05.14.2013 | Black Voices

Read More: Exoneration, Dna, Capital Punishment, Pennsylvania, Human Rights, Prison, Crime, Death Penalty, Philadelphia, Civil Rights, Prosecutorial Misconduct, Black Voices News

The followings are remarks I gave on May 4 at the kickoff rally of the Philadelphia Moratorium Campaign at the First United Methodist Church of German...

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Landmark Case Turns 50 -- But Defense Attorneys Aren't Celebrating

HuffingtonPost.com | Radley Balko | Posted 05.13.2013 | Politics

One of the Supreme Court's most celebrated criminal procedure decisions turns 50 years old Monday. By a 7-2 vote, the Court ruled in the 1963 case Bra...

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Why Is Don Siegelman Still in Jail?

Bennett L. Gershman | Posted 04.17.2013 | Politics

Read More: Justice Department, Presidential Pardons, Don Siegelman, Prosecutorial Misconduct, Politics News

Despite all this, President Obama, apparently on advice from his "Pardon Attorneys," has refused to grant Siegelman a pardon or commute his seven-year sentence. Why?

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Professional Discipline of Federal Prosecutors Reaches a New Low

Bennett L. Gershman | Posted 04.09.2013 | Crime

Read More: Ted Stevens, Henry Schuelke, Professional-Ethics, Justice Department, Prosecutorial Misconduct, Crime News

An administrative judge has vacated suspensions of two federal prosecutors who were disciplined by the Justice Department for their flagrant misconduct in prosecuting and convicting the late Senator Ted Stevens.

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Athletes Cheat and Get Punished, But Prosecutors Cheat and Get Promoted

Bennett L. Gershman | Posted 04.04.2013 | Crime

Read More: Drug Testing, Evidence, Innocence, Athletes, Discipline, Prosecutorial Misconduct, Crime News

Given that prosecutors occupy a special "quasi-judicial" function, it would seem that a special disciplinary body should be created to investigate misconduct by prosecutors similar to the special disciplinary bodies that investigate the misconduct of judges.

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ProPublica On Prosecutor Accountability In New York City

Radley Balko | Posted 04.03.2013 | Politics

Read More: Transparency, Criminal Justice, Propublica, Accountability, Innocence, The Agitator, Prosecutorial Misconduct, Politics News

The investigative journalism outfit finds . . . that there is none. The report starts with anecdote about Claude Stuart, a city prosecutor who lost...

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Aaron Swartz Prosecutor Sanctioned For Aggressive Tactic

HuffingtonPost.com | Zach Carter | Posted 03.25.2013 | Politics

Read More: Video, Holder, Aaron Swartz Carmen Ortiz, Doj, Darrell Issa, Carmen Ortiz Aaron Swartz, Congres, Stephen Heymann, Aaron Swartz Prosecutor, Aaron Swartz Case, Carmen Ortiz, Aaron Swartz, Prosecutorial Misconduct, Politics News

WASHINGTON -- U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz, under fire over her office's aggressive prosecution of Internet activist Aaron Swartz, was admonished by a f...

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Appeals to Racial Prejudice by Prosecutors

Bennett L. Gershman | Posted 04.30.2013 | Crime

Read More: US Supreme Court, Prosecutorial-Misconduct, Racial Prejudice, Criminal Trial, Crime News

Appeals to racial prejudice by prosecutors occur much less frequently today, and when they do, a conviction usually is reversed. But not always.

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Prosecutor Shaming: Berkshire, Massachusetts Second Assistant District Attorney Robert W. Kinzer III

Radley Balko | Posted 04.30.2013 | Politics

Read More: Sexting, Video, Prosecutorial Discretion, Teens, Teen Sex, Criminal Justice, Prosecutors, Prosecutorial Misconduct, Teenagers, The Agitator, Politics News

Mr. Kinzer thinks we must protect sexting teenagers from ruining their lives . . . by ruining their lives. As the head of the DA's computer cri...

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Shaming Bad Prosecutors

Radley Balko | Posted 04.27.2013 | Politics

Read More: Racism, Criminal Justice, Prosecutorial Misconduct, The Agitator, Politics News

This morning, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor scolded a federal prosecutor for a racist comment he made during a drug trial. While question...

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The Power Of The Prosecutor

Radley Balko | Posted 03.18.2013 | Politics

Read More: Carmen Ortiz, Prosecutors, Aaron Swartz, Prosecutorial Misconduct, The Agitator, Politics News

The death of Internet activist Aaron Swartz has generated a lot of discussion about the power of prosecutors -- particularly federal prosecutors. This...

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Spouse Of Aaron Swartz's Prosecutor Defends Her On Twitter

The Huffington Post | Posted 01.15.2013 | Technology

When Internet activist Aaron Swartz was found dead in his Brooklyn apartment on Friday after an apparent suicide, friends, family and those who never ...

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Alaska Militia Mole Raises New, Troublesome Questions About FBI Intrusion in State Politics

AlaskaDispatch.com | Posted 03.16.2013 | Politics

Read More: William Fulton, Corruption, Politics, Ted Stevens, Mark Begich, Militia, Crime, Alaska Peacemakers Militia, Fbi, Alaska, Justice, Schaeffer Cox, Prosecutorial Misconduct, Politics News

The rogue security agent whose actions helped spark the downfall of 2010 U.S. Senate candidate Joe Miller, a Fairbanks Republican, has finally reveale...

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Prosecutors Under Fire In Tragic Death Of Internet Pioneer Aaron Swartz

HuffingtonPost.com | Zach Carter | Posted 01.14.2013 | Politics

WASHINGTON -- A petition urging President Barack Obama to fire U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz for prosecutorial overreach in her office's case against Aar...

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The Most Read Agitator Posts of 2012

Radley Balko | Posted 02.19.2013 | Politics

Read More: Drug Dogs, Drug War, Criminal Justice, Police Militarization, Police Raids, Puppycide, Prosecutorial Misconduct, The Agitator, Politics News

Here are the 10 posts from The Agitator that generated the most pageviews in 2012. -- Puppycide in New Mexico. -- But for Audio. (Florida woman's ce...

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"Maybe the Press Failed Then": An Interview With Ken Burns and Raymond Santana

Rick Ayers | Posted 01.29.2013 | Crime

Read More: Kharey Wise, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana, Rape, Yusef Salaam, Ken Burns, Racism, Central Park Five, Documentary Film, New York, Prosecutorial Misconduct, Antron McCray, Crime News

The actual assailant, who confessed years later and whose DNA confirmed his story, was never in the sights of the police and prosecutors. Sadly, people remember the hysteria of the conviction campaign and often don't even realize that the lynch-mob mentality got the wrong guys.

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Our Broken Criminal Justice System: The Issues No One Is Talking About

HuffingtonPost.com | Radley Balko | Posted 11.19.2012 | Politics

Our broken criminal justice system wasn't discussed in the first two 2012 debates, and it's unlikely it will be addressed in the two that remain. In f...

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Justice Department Should 'Step Up' on Flawed Forensic Evidence

Ginny Sloan | Posted 07.18.2012 | Politics

If the DOJ thinks there may be problems with hair evidence in District of Columbia cases, why should we believe there are not similar problems with hair evidence compiled by the FBI lab and used to obtain convictions in other jurisdictions?

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The Unchecked Charging Power of the Prosecutor

Radley Balko | Posted 06.13.2012 | Crime

Read More: George Zimmerman, Prosecutorial Discretion, Bennett Gershman, Trayvon Martin, Alan Dershowitz, Criminal Justice, Angela Corey, Prosecutors, Prosecutorial Misconduct, Crime News

The power prosecutors have to charge people with crimes is often overlooked.

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TEXAS INJUSTICE: 91 Cases Of Prosecutor Misconduct, No Discipline

Austin Chronicle | Posted 06.06.2012 | Crime

Read More: Texas, Criminal Justice, Michael Morton, Criminal Justice System, Prosecutors, Prosecutorial Misconduct, Crime News

Although courts have confirmed that prosecutorial misconduct occurred in 91 Texas criminal cases between 2004 and 2008, not a single prosecutor among ...

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Texas Court of Inquiry Into Prosecutorial Misconduct Is Big News

Andrea Lyon | Posted 04.22.2012 | Crime

Read More: Due Process, Innocence, Innocence Project, Prosecutors, Prosecutorial Misconduct, Supreme Court, Justice, Crime News

A special investigation has been convened to decide whether a former prosecutor, who is now a judge, hid evidence in a trial in which a man was wrongly convicted of his wife's murder and sent to prison for almost 25 years.

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For-Profit Criminal Prosecutions

Andrea Lyon | Posted 03.14.2012 | Crime

Read More: Police, Crime, Public Defender, Prosecution, Prosecutorial Misconduct, Tabloid Journalism, Crime News

When there is publicity associated with a criminal prosecution, the ability for jurors, judges, and prosecutors and yes, sometimes even defense lawyers, to presume innocence becomes even more circumscribed.

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Rule Following Is for Both Government and Citizens

Brad Reid | Posted 02.02.2012 | Business

The important lesson for all is that "winning" is not the only thing. Winning is the outcome of superior products and services in the business context. Winning in law should mean that justice under law is served.

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We Must Insist on Accountability for Wrongful Convictions

John Conroy | Posted 01.31.2012 | Chicago

Wrongful convictions have ruined lives and wasted tax dollars. They represent a shameful and reprehensible miscarriage of justice. But a measure of accountability can still be salvaged, even decades after the fact.

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