Yesterday the Northern California Innocence Project (NCIP) held it’s fifth panel discussion on prosecutorial misconduct, this time at Santa Clara University. Unlike the previous four, the local district attorney, Jeff Rosen, accepted the NCIP’s invitation to participate.
According to the Mercury News (Silicon Valley, CA) here, Rosen “was elected on a promise to reform the office’s win-at-all-costs culture after a series of scandals.” He has re-established the office’s Conviction Integrity unit. While acknowledging that some prosecutorial misconduct is “egregious,” he expressed his belief that prosecutorial error is primarily “unintentional, not malicious.”
Also attending was Obie Anthony, who served 17 years in prison before a judge overturned his murder conviction. The judge noted prosecutorial misconduct in utilizing the key piece of evidence against Anthony, testimony of a pimp, and concealing the deal the prosecutor had made with him. Anthony essentially urged Rosen to be alert to criticisms as “notice” that someone in his office is committing misconduct. “You just need to be accountable,” Anthony said.
NCIP executive director Kathleen “Cookie” Ridolfi reported that a third of the misconduct cases from 1997 through 2011 involved “repeat-offender prosecutors.”
“A group of bad actors are dragging down the reputation of prosecutors, and we have a system that protects them,” she said.
The NCIP’s annual report counted 92 cases of alleged prosecutorial misconduct reaching state and federal courts in California alone, of which the courts set aside the conviction or sentence, barred evidence or declared a mistrial in ten. To put misconduct statistics in perspective, Ridolfi noted that 97 percent of criminal cases end in plea bargains. Since judges review primarily cases that have gone to trial, the vast majority of criminal cases rarely receive subsequent judicial review…and this opportunity for discovery of prosecutorial misconduct.
A webcast of the forum may be viewed here.
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