Should prosecutors face consequences when innocent people go to jail?
L.A. Times
2013/02/05 16:00:00
|
|
|||||
|
1,688 votes
|
|
90% | |||
|
191 votes
|
|
10% | |||
In emotional testimony Monday, a Texas man told a judge how it felt spending 25 years in prison for a murder he did not commit. “Brutal,” Michael Morton said. “But after a couple decades, I got used to it.”
Morton, 58, who grew up in Los Angeles, was convicted in the 1986 beating death of his wife, Christine, at their home. He was exonerated and released almost a year and a half ago after DNA tests confirmed his innocence. Another man has since been charged in connection with the killing.
Now the man who prosecuted Morton, Williamson County District Judge Ken Anderson, faces an unprecedented “court of inquiry” about 30 miles north of Austin in which a judge will decide whether the then-district attorney lied and concealed evidence that could have cleared Morton.
Morton, 58, who grew up in Los Angeles, was convicted in the 1986 beating death of his wife, Christine, at their home. He was exonerated and released almost a year and a half ago after DNA tests confirmed his innocence. Another man has since been charged in connection with the killing.
Now the man who prosecuted Morton, Williamson County District Judge Ken Anderson, faces an unprecedented “court of inquiry” about 30 miles north of Austin in which a judge will decide whether the then-district attorney lied and concealed evidence that could have cleared Morton.
Read More: http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na...
They are there to prosecute. They are not there to play judge. If there is reasonable evidence to suggest that the person may have done it, they have an OBLIGATION to prosecute.
If they hid evidence that should have been turned over to the defense that could have cleared him, then they need to have their ass handed to them.
If the prosecutor was doing the best job possible, based on the evidence at hand, how can you say that?
If there was evidence withheld, or other tampering with the case, that's different. And we have laws to cover that.
What the hell do you want, prosecutors afraid to prosecute and criminals out on the street? Then we'll have to go back to citizens taking the law into their OWN hands...
The criminal laws don't punish the prosecutor, the worst that happens for him/her after wasting decades of an innocent person's life is disbarment. And it typically doesn't go that far. (eg, this prosecutor withheld evidence in muder case and was only suspended for a month: http://www.mercurynews.com/cr... )
Personally, I think they should have to serve as much time as the innocent person did, as well as forfeit all of their property and assets to the person they harmed.