Wednesday, December 9, 2009

More prosecutorial misconduct

There have been a lot of reports of prosecutorial misconduct this year. Go here so see my posts on this subject. Here is another recent example, as reported by the Legal Profession Blog: The Arizona Supreme Court has adopted the recommendation of a hearing officer of a 30 day suspension and probation of a prosecutor for a wide and persistent array of ethics violations during a trial. The hearing officer had found that the prosecutor had, among other things, argued facts not in evidence, asked improper questions, expressed personal opinions about guilt and otherwise behaved in a manner that should provide a training lesson of how not to conduct a criminal trial. In final argument, he stated to the jury: "Ladies and Gentlemen, you've been presented a case that is as strong a case as a prosecutor can present you in a court of law." In his rebuttal argument, he told the jurors "The law requires that I not prove this case beyond all doubt, but only that you have to feel comfortable in your decision that [the defendant] is guilty."

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