On Prosecutors Protecting Wrongful Convictions

"I’ve made the argument before that convicting an innocent person of murder ought to be treated like a doctor who amputates the wrong limb. If it wasn’t intentional, perhaps it shouldn’t be a criminal offense. But it should end that person’s career. Yet to actively work to preserve bad convictions, and to work to keep information about those cases from becoming public, is another matter entirely," writes Radley Balko today in the Washington Post.

With a hat tip to Mark Godsey at the Wrongful Convictions blog, I ask Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne to read a book: Who Killed Sarah? A True Story of Injustice.

I would be happy to email Mr. Ozanne a copy, if you are reading this. Your office is protecting a wrongful prosecution, and I suspect a man of your intellect realizes this fact.

Your office can afford to be just.

St. Louis Co Prosecutors Charge Journalists with 'Contempt of Cop'

Radley Balko in the Washington Post notes the corrupt and malicious ways of the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney's office.

Imagine being black in St. Louis County if this is the way they treat journalists.

Writes Balko today:

Two journalists, one from the Huffington Post and one from the Washington Post, who were arrested during last year’s Ferguson, Mo., protests have been charged with what essentially amounts to 'contempt of cop.' That isn’t and shouldn’t be a crime, but it isn’t even clear they did that. Certainly doesn’t do much to dispel the accusation that St. Louis County prosecutors are petty, vindictive, and use their power as a weapon.

If ever there were an argument for hitting absolute immunity of prosecutors, this case would stand out. Ryan Reilly (Huffington Post) and Wesley Lowery (Washington Post) are charged with  "trespassing and interfering with a police officer’s performance, a chilling setback for press freedom coming nearly a year after their arrests in Ferguson, Missouri."

Prosecutors enjoy the power of the Sovereign: The government in all its power, glory and might.

"The prosecutor wields all of the power and might of the government as the Sovereign and enjoys all of the immunity that protects the Sovereign," notes one jurist commenting on the power of the prosecutor earlier this year.