Examples Of Prosecutorial Misconduct

The media can be an effective tool for exposing injustices in the application of criminal law, however it can also be used to create unfair bias against the alleged offender therefore, causing an imbalance between the rights of the accused and society. The media attempted to vilify Loveridge to create prejudice

The importance of show-trials is proving what you are doing looks good, and that is law-abiding. It is important to make everyone happy. (Bach pg.193) A show-trial is a judicial trial held in public with the intention of influencing or satisfying public opinion, rather than of ensuring justice. These show trials resonate deeply with the citizenry. The media world is outrageously popular for captivating the public audience’s attention for court room related cases. An example would be TV. We’ve all came across episodes of “Law and Order.” It appears out to be “how” people think American Justice is. (Bach pg.195) The public attention of media is ranked highly and known as best.

This essay will explore how prosecutorial misconduct causes wrongful convictions in both the United States and Australia. This essay will also argue that rehabilitation and compensation should be provided by the state. A major flaw in the criminal justice system not only in the United States but also in Australia, is the failure to set forth a plan for the people who were exonerated to be accepted back into society. The lack of a plan for rehabilitation for the exonerated poses a problem for society since some might find it easier to find a job in prison then in the real world, this process makes it immensely difficult for prisoners to get acclimated back into society. The Australian Law Review Committee is an entity which evaluates and gives

For a more adverse effect, the trail of Casey Anthony is a good example of how the media impacted the Criminal Justice System. Lawyer Nicholas Battaglia proposed a new term, “trail by media,” in his article for the Albany Law Review. Essentially, Battaglia proposed that the media had an adverse effect on the Casey Anthony trial by questioning certain finding of the defense, live on T.V., which swayed public opinion. Therefore, when the jury exonerated her, the public was in an outcry because they had come up with their own conclusions, or as Battaglia put it, “In a sense, this crated a “wrongful exoneration” of the defendant because the “armchair jury” had convicted her when the actual jury acquitted” (Battaglia, 2012) A perspective that I had previously not considered was the potential bias that media can represent as a result of either personal or occupational

While all of the topics that we have covered throughout this course have been troubling, the topic of prosecutorial misconduct is to me one of the most distressing; the mere thought of the possibility of misconduct by prosecutors gives me the chills, and the numerous examples featured within the assigned chapter readings, in addition to the online articles, only further my skepticism in the legal system and those individuals holding official positions. There appears to be a lot of similarities between prosecutorial misconduct and the topics that we discussed as possible reasons for faulty forensic science, such as a common trust bias in police officials, lack of universal standards, and other cognitive biases such as confirmation bias and belief perseverance.

A good example of misconduct was the case in Atlanta involving the death of a woman named Kathryn Johnson. To further explain, the police stated that they an undercover agent bought drugs at her house but it wasn’t Kathryn. Law enforcement was able to acquire a warrant to enter Johnson’s home. They were

Prosecutorial Discretion comes from the Bordenkircher v Hayes (1978) case. The Supreme Court ruled “ so long as the prosecutor has probable cause to believe that the accused committed an offense defined by statute, the decision whether or not to prosecute, and what charge to file or bring before a grand jury, generally rests entirely in his discretion.” (Whitebread, Slobogin, 2008, p591) Some states require the prosecution to give them a detailed written reason as to why they chose to dismiss a case. In most cases, the prosecutor has absolute authority and are rarely challenged. Similar to most government officials, prosecutors also have both legislative and administrative restrictions.

One thing I notice is a lot of the misconduct is by the arresting officers or detectives that are investigating the crime. The ways an office can have misconduct that could lead to false convictions, include suggestions when conducting interviews, coercing false confessions, lying to jurors about observations, failing to turn over evidence. Common forms of misconduct by a prosecutor can include, withhold evidence from defense, mishandling, mistreating or destroying evidence, allowing witnesses that they know are not truthful to testify, Pressing Witnesses of the defense to not testify, relying on fraudulent forensic experts.

Wrongful Conviction Must Stop Why would a father kill his children? And even if he did, how could he live with himself, after murdering his 7 children in cold blood? He didn’t! Estimating a rate of wrongful convictions is not easy. So many trusted the justice system and it failed them.

There is certainly constant controversy about the numerous amounts of conviction cases which involves false allegations and how black men play a significant role. “A Crime by Any Other Name” briefly mentions the concept of how bias and discriminatory our Justice System truly is. Something in particular that we see constantly especially in urban areas is the mistreatment of black men. Black men are blamed and punished for a crime they ultimately did not do for reasons which racist people think that a black man who is suspicious should be arrested or charged. As we all know, police enforcement typically focuses on street crime and low-income neighborhoods. Specifically today, Chicago is still facing numerous amounts of false conviction cases

The first reason this argument is very unpersuasive is because hurting or killing an opposing attorney can in no way be legal. For the second reason let me present you with an example: one of your best friends is hanging onto the edge of a 20,000 foot cliff. You are standing right above them and within arm's reach. You have two options, right? 1)

Here are some of the most important factors to a prosecutor: Political Aspirations: prosecutors often run for office or seek political appointments. As a result, they are keenly aware of the image prosecuting a particular offense sends the community. Even if the evidence is questionable, if there is considerable community outrage, a prosecutor may decide to pursue a case. Alternatively, certain crimes will almost always be prosecuted, because not prosecuting them sends a bad message (e.g., DUIs). Office Policies: prosecution offices often have policies regarding which crimes they want to prosecute.

To begin with, the job a prosecutor has is to gather the facts of the case, along with interviewing material witnesses, and study the evidence that was collected. Next, there may be two attorneys who work the case and both should make the case hold up in court. Finally, an example of a case “where the prosecutor was unethical was when Michael B. Nifong charged Duke university lacrosse team in 2007 with sexual assault, and other crimes, although the evidence collected did not prove that they were guilty.” (pg.)

defense attorney was appointed to him by the judge. His attorney put on no defense.

Give a real life example of prosecutor misconduct and indicate briefly how/if that prosecutor was punished?