Last month I posted a note (here) about a new short article in the Yale Law Journal Online on prosecutorial accountability. The article is called The Myth of Prosecutorial Accountability After Connick v. Thompson: Why Existing Professional Responsibility Measures Cannot Protect Against Prosecutorial Misconduct and it is available here.
Today, one of the authors of the article published an Op-ed piece in the National Law Journal calling for more accountability for prosecutors. It is available here. It states that "research analyzing the policies and procedures for disciplining attorneys in each state and in the District of Columbia shows that prosecutors are rarely held accountable when misconduct occurs."
I have been saying this for a long time, of course, so I am glad the problem is finally getting more attention. Long time readers of this blog might remember that I called 2009 the year of prosecutorial misconduct because there were so many high profile cases reported. Also, if you look at the number of posts by topic (on the right side panel) of this blog you will see that the "prosecutors" category has one of the highest totals. Obviously, not all of the cases reported there involve intentional misconduct, but many do and more often than not my comments end with me complaining that courts and disciplinary agencies do not do enough to discourage misconduct among prosecutors. For the most recent example, go here.
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