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Quite a case
Appellate opinion here, in pdf.
Defendant was prosecuted for tax evasion (and got ten years) and for soliciting the murder of government officials (and got 33 years for that). Key witness to the latter testified he was a Marine vet, served in secret missions in or after the Korean War, had a purple heart and silver star, and when challenged, pulled out the service paperwork to prove it all. It was discovered that he'd forged the paperwork, enlisted years after the Korean War ended, had no service in Korea, his only injury was a car crash in the US. Motion for new trial denied ... and the Court of Appeals reverses the denial. It notes that prosecutors knew a lot of his story was fishy, and kept mum on it.
Comments
In my personal opinion, there is no excuse for prosecutorial misconduct like this. They ought to be fired, disbarred, and successfully sued under Bivens.
Posted by: Letalis Maximus, Esq. at June 10, 2008 03:53 PM
Most police misconduct is well known to the prosecutors. But the prosecutors benefit from it. So they skim the edges of Brady. Justice loses to careerism.
Posted by: 30yearProf at June 10, 2008 04:15 PM
you are wrong about what should happen to a prosecutor proven to have engaged in such conduct. They should be given the maximum sentence applicable to the crime for which they tried a man they had reason to know of exculpatory evidence and withheld it, or engaged in other illegal conduct to gain a conviction.
I do mean the maximum possible penalty, up to and including the death penalty.
Posted by: straightarrow at June 10, 2008 07:29 PM