The lead prosecutor, William W. Mercer, was appointed by President Bush.
Top prosecutor of Stevens was criticized in San Antonio case - San Antonio Express-News, April 8, 2009
She was promoted in August 2006 to principal deputy chief of the Public Integrity Section in Washington and was the lead prosecutor in the Stevens case. This is a prosecutor who needs to be removed, and I would hope the attorney general utilizes the same test of integrity as he did in the Stevens case, said U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia, who ruled against Morris in Brown's case. Brown's lawyers say Morris never reined in the agents and proceeded unfairly. I wasn't shocked about her behavior. I was shocked that anybody did anything about it, Brown said, referring to the Stevens case. It appears as though she's continuing a course of conduct of not following the rules, not reining in her agents and not operating fairly, said Bill Reid, a former federal prosecutor who handled Brown's lawsuit against the government. [Brenda] Morris, in the Washington, D.C., office, had been picked by the Justice Department to handle the case after it recused every prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney's Office in San Antonio because of a potential conflict of interest.
Judge Dismisses Stevens Case, Orders Inquiry - NPR, by Nina Totenberg, April 7, 2009 "The events of this case are too numerous and serious to leave to an internal inquiry by the Justice Department," Sullivan said. He noted that the Justice Department Office of Professional Responsibility has supposedly been investigating the prosecutors' conduct for six months, and "the silence has been deafening." Accordingly, said Sullivan, he was invoking a federal law allowing him to undertake contempt proceedings against the entire first team of prosecutors. "I have the highest regard for Attorney General Eric Holder," said the judge, but because the interests of justice are best served by taking this investigation out of the Justice Department, Sullivan said he had appointed a private attorney an experienced former prosecutor and military judge named Henry Schuelke to conduct the inquiry. Not every member of the original prosecution team was involved in the case from the beginning. Indeed, the lead prosecutor, Brenda Morris, was assigned to the case only weeks before the trial began. Sullivan minced no words. "In 25 years on the bench," he said, "I've never seen anything approach the mishandling and misconduct in this case." Again and again, he said, the government was caught making false representations and failing to meet what it knew was its obligation to turn over information that was potentially favorable to the defense. The fair administration of justice, he said, should not depend on the luck of the draw it should not depend on who represents a defendant or whether an FBI agent blows the whistle or whether there is a new administration or a new attorney general or a new trial team.
No, I meant the lead in the Steven’s case. She was a Black woman.