WTF is happening to this country? The Supreme Court Stands Tall for Misbehaving Prosecutors

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

Can prosecutors press a criminal case against a man by suppressing the existence of forensic evidence that shows him to be innocent, without themselves being held accountable? “Yes,” says the Supreme Court, by a 5-4 decision, in a ruling by Justice Clarence Thomas. It’s a complicated story, but the core issue is fairly straightforward: prosecutorial accountability for serious misconduct—in this case, misconduct that put an innocent man on death row, and at one point within days of execution.

In 1985, John Thompson was arrested and charged with two separate crimes: a murder and an attempted armed robbery that took place three weeks later in New Orleans. Prosecutors opted for two separate trials, beginning with the robbery. Their thinking was likely tactical. If they got a conviction at the robbery trial, they could use that conviction against him at the murder trial, improving their chances at obtaining a conviction.

Two days before Thompson’s robbery trial was slated to begin, however, the prosecutor handling the case got a crime lab report showing that the perpetrator had left blood behind at the scene, and the blood was not Thompson’s. The law required the prosecutor to turn this report over to Thompson’s attorneys. Instead, he suppressed it and pressed forward with his case. The jury found Thompson guilty of the robbery. That conviction had a decisive impact on the second trial, too. Thompson was warned that if he testified in his own defense, the prosecution would be entitled to inform the jury of the robbery conviction and argue that he was not a truthful or reliable witness. Thompson therefore did not testify. The jury, disbelieving his alibi for the murder, perhaps because he failed to testify in support of it, convicted him and gave him a death sentence.

Just before Thompson was set to be executed in 1999, his attorney learned of the suppressed lab report and the grave misconduct of the prosecutor. Armed with this, Thompson’s convictions for both the robbery and the murder were overturned. When he was retried for murder in 2003, a jury, armed with much more testimony and evidence, concluded that he was innocent.

http://www.harpers.org/archive/2011/04/hbc-90008045

http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/10pdf/09-571.pdf

[RKP5637]

1. What's happened is the country has left most of us and is evolving into something unpleasant. n/t

[iwishiwas]

2. So, prosecuters are immune from the law. WHOW--just like other

top governmental officials. whow.

[RKP5637]

3. Yep, it's the plutocracy circling the wagons as many Americans sleep at the wheel. n/t

[Ilsa]

7. Or they are too busy treading water to have time to notice these details

instead of listening to what's happening to Lindsey Lohan or Charlie Sheen.

[iwishiwas]

22. Many I do are just treading water.

[bluestate10]

9. Not true. Sane moderates are watching and waiting for the

chance to get Scalia and Thomas's seats. The problem is the Left, who want to blow up the democratic party because they think no progress is being made, all the while in the face of enormous progress being made.

[Aerows]

12. I take exception to the notion

that it is always the fault of the left, when our country has been dragged so far to the right that Obama is considered a "liberal". The left naturally wants the country to go more to the left, but that's not the problem.

The problem is that our nation is no longer governed whatsoever by our "government". We have candidates manufactured for us, and then we get to choose between Corporate Mouthpiece A or B. If you feel like you have representation and that there is accountability, you haven't been paying attention.

There is *FLAGRANT* disregard for the law in the upper 1%. They can literally be held accountable for nothing. Everyone else is held to a different standard. That's not a right and left problem - that's a top and bottom problem. We are no longer a nation of laws, but a nation of men.

[bluestate10]

14. Get involved in local politics, manufacturer candidates that will stand for

statewide and national offices. Your complaint is one of the easy outs used by the Left, ie, we have no say or power. Bullshit. If the Left really knew how to get involved, not only would candidates be of their liking, those candidates would have been vetted for fidelity to core values. The Left must admit that the Right is beating them at every turn in getting the Right's core value candidates elected, all while the Left is perfectly willing to kill the candidacy of a politician that agree with them on 80% of core values, with no replacement in sight. Spare me your rationalizations, I have seen them in action, with Greens in my state being willing to allow the election of a republican governor because the democratic incumbent pissed them off on a couple of issues. Moderate democrats and Independents wisely prevented the Greens from having their way. My state does not deal with a Scott Walker problem today because of the wisdom of centrist democrats and some Independents.

[Aerows]

16. Do you know why the right is beating them at every turn?

Because the right is completely aligned with Corporate values. Of course it's easy to find people willing to shill for corporate interests. What is difficult is finding someone with the courage and the ability to stand up to the corporations. When someone does, they tend to get thrown out of office.

So I have to disagree with you - it is a top vs. the bottom problem, not a right vs. left problem. Sooner or later, enough people are going to figure that out. Our political process is BROKEN. This ruling should be a clear example for you. The Wall Street bailouts should be clear examples for you.

Who has been held accountable for anything in recent memory?

[RKP5637]

17. I'm all for sane moderates! n/t

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

20. The problem is not the left. The left is a small minority within the electorate. The

left did not vote to confirm that ass clown Clarence Thomas. So called moderates did.

The problem is that so called moderates shift with the wind every election cycle. So called moderates abandoned the Democrats n droves during the last election.

[Aerows]

4. Corruption

Our Supreme Court is the most corrupt we have ever had. Thomas should be impeached if not jailed for the falsification of tax forms.

This prosecutor is able to suppress evidence and get away with it, but a man that didn't commit a crime is held accountable. If you aren't one of the big people, you are one of the little people and will get no justice. If you are one of the big people, you are above the law.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

18. This is unfuckingbelievable ain't it. nt

[bluestate10]

5. Take note,

those on DU that pan President Obama. The Supreme Court is one vote from delivering fair, impartial rulings. Do you think the Court will get there if you vote for no chance to winners or sit at home on election day? Expect 5-4 decisions against you until President Obama, or another democrat that can win get to replace a Scalia, Thomas or Roberts. The next President may also have to fill the seat of one progressive justice that has documented health concerns. Do Liberals want a Romney, Gingrich, Pawlenty, Bachmann, or the Arkansas turnip chewer making SCJ appointments.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

11. Sadly I don't think the midterms were a sufficient lesson in the costs of poutrage

And then come mid-2013 the same people will be stomping their feet in poutrage as President Dumbshit and the teabagger class of 2012 unleash their wrath.

[bluestate10]

13. Our party must stop the right and teabaggers now.

Our side has numbers and principles on our side. The fraternal fights and dissing our President must stop. Once we have vanquished teabaggers and the right, we can settle our differences, that is if we do not happily agree by then.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

6. sometimes the machinery of death needs a little grease

ya' know how it is... political careers hinge on getting death sentences! Cut them some slack will ya?

[xchrom]

8. we not -- nor have we been for a while -- a nation of laws. we are something else. nt

[YellowRubberDuckie]

10. This guy needs to sue that man for violating his civil rights.

And the guy should be charged with attempted murder. This has malice attached to it. It was also laziness on his part. Oh, who cares if I have the right guy? I'm going to win my case. This sets a TERRIBLE precedent and just screwed over every one of us. Our constitution was just spit on by a man who shouldn't even BE on the Supreme Court to begin with. Thomas needs to be kicked off the bench. He's the only black man I have ever seen in my life who hates black people. He is in favor of segregation (his first opinion he ever wrote years after he got onto the bench tells us this), and he's apparently a moron who can't read the constitution when it comes to criminal court cases. This is terrifying and terribly sad all at once.
Duckie

[GigiMommy]

15. He should but I don't know if he can.

From The Los Angeles Times, March 30, 2011:..."The 5-4 decision delivered by Justice Clarence Thomas shielded the New Orleans district attorney's office from being held liable for the mistakes of its prosecutors. The evidence of their misconduct did not prove "deliberate indifference" on the part of then-Dist. Atty. Harry Connick Sr., Thomas said."

[Flubadubya]

21. ...shielded NO's DA's office from being liable for "mistakes" of its prosecutors...

"Mistakes... mistakes!!??" Sorry, that was no mistake. This is a case of the most heinous and deliberate obstruction of justice I have ever heard of.

Sad thing is, this kind of crap happens all the time... sadder now is the fact that it has legal sanction from the highest court in the land. It's "Katie bar the door" now regarding any and all prosecutorial malfeasance. :grr::mad:

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

19. This infuriates me so that I can't even find the words to express it. And anybody who's ever

met will tell you that's a rarity.