http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB10565885291125800,00.html?mod=politics%5Fprimary%5Fhs
is better than the CBS one. but the WSJ is a pay site.
here's a tip of the iceberg regarding scandalous performance in the nation's legal monopoly.
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CBS News Prosecutorial Misconduct Rampant Prosecutorial Misconduct
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/06/26/national/printable560562.shtml
State and local prosecutors bent or broke the rules to help put 32 innocent people in prison, some under death sentence, since 1970, according to the first nationwide study of prosecutorial misconduct.
Prosecutors misbehaved so badly in more than 2,000 cases during that period that appellate judges dismissed criminal charges, reversed convictions or reduced sentences, the study also found.
The study, "Harmful Error," found 223 prosecutors around the nation who had been cited by judges for two or more cases of unfair conduct but only two prosecutors who had been disbarred in the past 33 years for mishandling criminal cases. There are about 30,000 local prosecutors in 2,341 jurisdictions.
A product of three years of research by The Center for Public Integrity, a private ethics watchdog group, the study found 28 cases involving 32 defendants in which judges concluded that misconduct by prosecutors contributed to the convictions of innocent people.
These 32 were later exonerated, 12 of them by use of DNA genetic evidence. Some of these innocent defendants had been convicted of murder, rape or kidnapping; some had been under death sentence before exoneration spared them.
In another 26 cases, 31 innocent defendants were convicted despite their allegations of misconduct by prosecutors. But in those cases, all subsequently exonerated, appellate judges dismissed the misconduct allegations or ruled prosecutors committed "harmless error." DNA evidence exonerated 24 of them.
The report said convictions of an undetermined number of guilty defendants also were undoubtedly overturned because of unfair prosecutor tactics. Some of those defendants could not be retried and were set free, so prosecutor misconduct "has severe consequences for the entire citizenry," the report said.
Charles Lewis, executive director of the center, said that by focusing only on cases in which appellate judges found misconduct the study presented "an extremely conservative and undoubtedly understated picture of the problem." The study also excluded federal prosecutors.
Astoria, Ore., District Attorney Joshua Marquis, a National District Attorneys Association board member, said the cases that were cited emerged "from a universe of millions." The results suggested that the problem was "episodic, not epidemic" and that prosecutors "are and should be subject to a high degree of scrutiny by trial and appellate judges, defendants and defense lawyers, the press and bar associations and ultimately the voters," Marquis added.
Project director Steve Weinberg, a University of Missouri journalism professor on leave, said researchers found and analyzed 11,458 appellate rulings in which prosecutor misconduct was raised as an issue.
In 2,017 cases, appellate judges found misconduct serious enough to order dismissal of charges, reversal of convictions or reduction of sentences. In an additional 513 cases, at least one judge filing a separate concurring or dissenting opinion thought the misconduct warranted reversal.
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