Good post. The sad thing is that it is one of so few. Hopefully, something will happen that will encourage this articular professor to stay at Duke and work to increase the objectivity of the administration and faculty.
http://www.wral.com/news/10373846/detail.html
NC House Committee Looks At Prosecutor Error In Capital Cases
POSTED: 6:45 pm EST November 21, 2006
UPDATED: 6:45 pm EST November 21, 2006
RALEIGH, N.C. -- A seasoned prosecutor and a well-known defense lawyer disagreed Tuesday about the extent of prosecutorial misconduct in the state's death penalty cases and what lawmakers should do about wayward district attorneys who withhold evidence.
"We do know that prosecutorial misconduct exists," said Joseph Cheshire, who represented former death row inmate Alan Gell. He won a new trial and was acquitted after a judge ruled prosecutors hid key witness statements from his defense attorneys.
Cheshire spoke Tuesday before a House committee examining the state's capital punishment system. The panel is expected to make recommendations to lawmakers on possible changes when the full General Assembly meets in January.
While admitting that defense attorneys always don't live up to the highest ethical standards, Cheshire said the stakes are high when prosecutors fail to do so.
"We all want to believe the fiction that all of our elected district attorneys are ethical," Cheshire said. "There are gross exceptions to the good people on both sides."
But Tom Lock, the district attorney in Harnett, Johnston and Lee counties, said there is usually nothing sinister or malicious at work when a piece of evidence isn't turned over to the defense. It's more likely to be an oversight, or evidence that the prosecutor never received from investigators.
"There is no epidemic of prosecutorial misconduct in this state," said Lock, who added a 2004 law requiring prosecutors to give defense attorneys their "complete files" and those of police prior to a felony trial is helping prevent potential problems.
Lock said raising starting pay for assistant district attorneys, providing more prosecutors and support staff, and making open discovery procedures more automated would help reduce the chances for prosecutorial mistakes.
N.C. State Bar counsel Katherine Jean said the group had received four complaints of prosecutorial misconduct in a capital cases since 2005. The bar has also asked a state appeals court to reinstate a misconduct case against two former Union County prosecutors accused of hiding deals that a witness received in a 1996 murder case.
Duke University law professor James Coleman, an expert on the death penalty and wrongful convictions, told lawmakers prosecutors sometimes engage in what he called the "unprincipled exercise of discretion" in determining when to seek the death penalty.
Coleman cited the case of Guy LeGrande, who is scheduled to be executed next week. Coleman said prosecutors sought a death sentence against LeGrande, who is black, while allowing a white co-defendant in the murder-for-hire case to plead guilty and serve life in prison.
"A prosecutor is a human and once they make a decision to seek the death penalty I think it's very difficult for them to have doubts about that," he said. "They focus on getting the death penalty and they do not focus on other factors that might affect justice."
Rep. Paul Luebke, D-Durham, said he's concerned that a disproportionate number of death row inmates came from the same group of counties. That suggests whether a convict receives a death sentences depends more on where the crime is committed, rather than the nature of the crime, he said.
"Other counties have no one on death row at all, not that murders don't take place in those other counties," Luebke said. "The standards don't seem to be there."
Several House members were interested in Cheshire's suggestion the state create a committee that reviews preliminary evidence to determine when a district attorney should seek the death penalty. The U.S. Department of Justice uses a similar committee that makes recommends to the U.S. Attorney General on whether to seek a death sentence in federal cases.
But Peg Dorer, executive director of N.C. Conference of District Attorneys, said such a system would take away the decision making process from district attorneys who stand for election.
"I don't believe the current discretion is inadequate or inappropriate," she said.