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Thursday, April 23rd, 2008
New Orleans,
PROSECUTOR IMMUNITY IN LOUISIANA?Â
Under both federal and Louisiana state law, prosecutors are given wide ranging immunity for their actions.Â
Prosecutors, particularly Louisiana, want the nation’s highest court to block any suits from someone wrongly convicted because, they say, it will open the door to a floodwall of frivolous claims. And if you review the history of numerous questionable decisions by Louisiana prosecutors, it would be fair to say they have good reason to be concerned.Â
Perhaps the most blatant example of prosecutors abusing the public trust was in a 1996 New Orleans conviction of Dan Bright for first-degree murder. Both the FBI and the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s Office suppressed a statement from a confidential FBI informant identifying someone completely different as the trigger man.Â
Bright received the death penalty and stayed in jail for eight years following his appeals before he was finally released by the Louisiana Supreme Court. Before his release, he served his time in Angola State penitentiary on death row in a coffin-size cell for 23 hours each day. His recourse when finally free? Just a shoulder shrug and comments of “tough luck” from the judicial system.Â
About the only bright spot to come out of the Bright judicial fiasco was the fact that the foreman of the jury who voted to send him to the electric chair, Kathleen Norman, has joined as an active member of a New Orleans organization called the Innocence Project. Their purpose is to review cases where the conviction was questionable, particularly when DNA evidence is available, and assume the burden of representing such defendants on appeal. Kathleen was on my radio show last year, and gives compelling testimony of how it is so easy to agree with knee-jerk acceptance as to whatever a prosecutor might claim happened.Â
Another case of blatant prosecutorial misconduct surfaced following the conviction of a fellow named John Thompson. He was convicted by a New Orleans jury of murder and spent 14 years on death row. But his prosecutor had remorse, and on his deathbed, he admitted destroying evidence in the case that would have set Thompson free.Â
And in a new can of worms for
In addition, a new study just made public sums up the nation’s view of Louisiana. The state has the nation’s second worst legal system, and Orleans Parish was ranked as one of the 10 least fair and reasonable court systems in the country, according to a report released this week by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.Â
As you can imagine, prosecutors throughout Louisiana are up in arms over the possibility of losing their absolute immunity. But is accountability all that bad? We are talking here about numerous cases where there was exculpatory evidence that could have helped the accused, yet it was purposely hidden or destroyed by a prosecutor. This goes far beyond any frivolous lawsuit. It’s a case of the prosecutor not only failing to do his job, but also subverting any realistic effort to see that justice will prevail.Â
Look for the High Court to confect some limited immunity, but force prosecutors to focus more on the facts and the truth, rather than continue, as we have seen time and time in New Orleans, to operate in the “gotcha” mentality mode that causes justice, way too often to be denied.Â
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“The function of the prosecutor under the federal Constitution is not to tack as many skins of victims as possible against the wall. His function is to vindicate the rights of the people as expressed in the laws and give those accused of crime a fair trial.”
– William Orville Douglas
Peace and Justice.
Jim Brown
Great article, Mr. Jim Brown!
As usual, you have been right on the money. In my opinion, we in LA have the most corrupt judicial system in the US. Were the truth known, judges from the lowest court to the Supreme Court have the highest records of corruption in the US. However, they are so powerful that even honest lawyers, judges, the ODC, and the supreme courts “judicial committe” (what a joke); even the law enforcement entities are afraid to address the problem. The FBI has deigned to look at some, but will not look at evidence of corruption regarding powerful judges. As for lawyers who conspire with these judges, the ODC is an even greater joke. I have unrefutable evidence about some of these judges and lawyers. However, the FBI, nor the US Attorney’s
office will even look at the evidence. We have our heads stuck in the sand when it comes to our “justice system”. The only thing that is a “system” is the “cover-up system”. We cannnot fix the “Louisiana Way” until we face and fix this problem. Of course, we do have honest lawyers and juges, thank God, but they are in the minority. Justice is just a dream, not a reality in LOUISIANA.
Thanks for your column, Jim.
I’m always interested in your viewpoint and this week’s is surely and important one. We spent 18 years living in St. Helena Parish. Talk about accountability; how about prosecutions for largely political reasons, which you know about first hand!
P.S. Fritz and I enjoy following Campbell’s career. You and Gladys take care.
Tee McCoy
Kudos for your column Jim…Always look forward to your writings. I am a relative of Michael Cobb in Pointe Coupee Parish. If there’s any case which factually prove’s the corruption here in Louisiana, it’s his. Check out the documents on the site: From the Local Court, to the LA Supreme Court, the FBI, and – A N D the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Not to mention the Judiciary Commission and the Attorney Disc. Board. It’s shameful and horrible!
Great column Jim. Thank you for focusing on one of the most important issues of our time. As bad as Louisiana is, it is equally unjust in many states and certainly within the federal system. No matter what one might think of former Illinois Governor Jim Ryan, what he did in commuting the death sentence of all inmates on Illinois’ death row was the bravest action I’ve ever seen by a politican. It only took a group of Northwestern law school students to prove that 50% of those sentenced to death had been unfairly tried and prosecutors withheld evidence. I definitely recommend reading former AUSA Scott Turow’s book on this issue.
great and straight to the point, yes our system has many flaws, but if any ine has noticed, many former prosecutors have elevated to judges, and some to federal judgship, how for to sake of justice can teh wrongfully convicted win…..