Flaws in the Justice System: Report Highlights Lack of Consequences for Prosecutorial Mistakes and Misbehavior
In a troubling revelation, the Innocence Project, a US-based organisation primarily headquartered in New York City, released a report on March 29, 2016, alleging that prosecutors across the country are rarely held accountable for withholding evidence or committing misconduct that leads to wrongful convictions.
The report was issued on the anniversary of the Supreme Court ruling in the case known as Connick v. Thompson, which dismissed a $14-million dollar award to a man who served 18 years in prison for a murder and robbery he did not commit. The majority ruling in this case determined that the Orleans Parish District Attorney's office could not be held civilly liable for the actions of a few employees.
The Innocence Project's report echoes a 2013 ProPublica examination focused on New York City prosecutors, which found more than two dozen instances in which judges explicitly concluded that New York City prosecutors had committed harmful misconduct.
The report was based on an examination of court records in Arizona, California, Texas, New York, and Pennsylvania from 2004 to 2008. Researchers found 660 instances of prosecutorial error or misconduct, of which 527 resulted in upheld convictions, and 133 resulted in convictions being overturned.
One of the key findings of the report is that appellate judges and others rarely report findings of misconduct to state panels and bar associations authorized to investigate them. As a result, only one prosecutor was disciplined by oversight authorities, according to the report. In situations where an investigation is launched, the committees generally failed to properly discipline the prosecutor who committed the misconduct.
The report's introduction is a 2011 letter to then-Attorney General Eric Holder and two national prosecutor associations, written in response to the Connick ruling and signed by 19 people whose wrongful convictions were secured in part by prosecutorial misconduct. According to the Innocence Project, the Justice Department never responded to the letter.
The report concludes with suggestions on how to hold prosecutors liable for their misdeeds, as the wrongfully convicted have virtually no meaningful access to the courts. Several wrongfully convicted people in these cases successfully sued New York City, resulting in tens of millions of dollars in settlements.
One such case involved Claude Stuart, a low-level Queens Assistant District Attorney, who was involved in three separate conviction reversals. Stuart was the only New York City prosecutor formally disciplined, according to the report.
The report suggests several recommendations to improve accountability for prosecutors, including mandating judges to report all findings of misconduct or error, and passing laws requiring prosecutors to turn over all law enforcement material well before trial. These measures, the report argues, would help ensure that justice is served and that the wrongly accused are not unjustly convicted.
Former Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes was voted out of office, in part because of wrongful convictions gained through misconduct on the part of his prosecutors or police detectives working with them. The report serves as a stark reminder that the issue of prosecutorial misconduct is not confined to specific regions or time periods, and that it continues to be a significant concern in the US justice system.
