By Mani Dabiri | Published October 28, 2020 | Posted in Federal and State Criminal Defense, Government Subpoenas and Investigations, Post-Conviction Defense and Appeals, White-Collar and Regulatory Defense | Tagged Tags: brady, dueprocess, obstructionofjustice, prosecutorialmisconduct |
The Due Process Protections Act
Last week, Congress passed a new law that sharpens a fundamental rule of fairness in our system: “In all criminal proceedings, on the first scheduled court date when both prosecutor and defense counsel are present, the judge shall issue an oral and written order … that confirms the disclosure obligation of the prosecutor under Brady v. Maryland, Read More
Read MoreThe End of Absolute Immunity for Prosecutors
Another outstanding feature by The Marshall Project. It’s written by a senior federal trial judge in New York. For 23 years, he’s sentenced the likes of murderers, rapists, gangsters, and fraudsters—some to prison for the rest of their lives. But he says it’s time to put an end to absolute immunity for prosecutors. Absolute immunity is what Read More
Read MoreA Tale of Two Rules for California Prosecutors
In the first days of fall, the Golden State has set forth two new, important rules to punish prosecutors who unreasonably, recklessly, or intentionally withhold evidence from the accused. One is a criminal statute that goes into effect next year. The other is an ethics rule that goes into effect if and when the state’s supreme court Read More
Read MoreLies, Damned Lies, and Sex Crimes
If you thought the case from last week was bad, here’s another one that’s worse. This time, the supposed victim hasn’t stepped forward to admit she lied, so the man she accused of child molestation sits in prison, as he has for seventeen years, and the system seems powerless to stop it. What happened? The jury never saw medical records Read More
Read MoreCalifornia Prosecutor to Pursue Perjury Cases More Aggressively
Speaking of district attorneys’ doing creative things, here’s another one. The district attorney from Lake County, California has created a perjury-investigations unit to prosecute what he views as rampant, unchecked perjury in the courtroom. And he’s not wrong about that. Just ask a divorce lawyer about the vicious lies that people will tell in court when it suits them. It’s Read More
Read MoreA Postscript to Last Week’s Open Letter
Following up on last week’s post, readers should understand the timeline of events that brought the misconduct to light. Here are the highlights. In January 2013, a defendant in a murder case filed a motion to get some important information from the prosecution. The trial court found good cause for the motion and granted it, but the district attorney’s office Read More
Read MoreAn Open Letter to the District Attorney of Orange County
Mr. Rackauckas: Just what is going on in your office, sir? I’m not talking about the fight that broke out in a county courthouse three weeks ago between one of your investigators and a defense attorney. Never mind that if a defense attorney did this to a cop, he’d be arrested so fast his head would spin. (Full Read More
Read MoreThe Grievous Case of the Three Missing Grouper
You may have heard about this one. On November 5, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Yates v. United States, a case that may be a figurative poster child for overcriminalization in America. The case involves the application of certain obstruction-of-justice statutes—one of which was enacted to respond to Enron-style corporate bad acts—to three missing fish. Here’s what happened. The defendant was Read More
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