John Thompson --- who lost his appeal before the U.S. Supreme Court last year and was
stripped of his $14 million civil award for the intentional misconduct that caused his
wrongful murder conviction and near execution -- will headline forums across the
country with policy makers and prosecutors to spark a national dialogue on possible
solutions.
"As someone who came within days of being put to death because of the intentional
misconduct of prosecutors at the New Orleans District Attorney's Office, I'm all too
familiar with what can go wrong when the enormous power of prosecutors goes
unchecked," said Thompson, Founder and Director of Resurrection After Exoneration
and Voices of Innocence.
"My case was not an isolated incident. Of the six men who received the death penalty at
the hands of one of my prosecutors, five had their convictions reversed because of
prosecutorial misconduct. I know that most prosecutors are as bothered by this behavior
as I am, and I call on them to help us find a way to make prosecutors' offices more
accountable," Thompson said.
Kathleen Ridolfi, professor at Santa Clara University School of Law and Executive
Director of the Northern California Innocence Project and the Veritas Initiative, added,
"Allowing this type of misconduct to persist undercuts public trust and undermines
prosecutors who do their jobs properly. Prosecutors -- who are no doubt just as concerned
about misconduct as we are -- are in an excellent position to help identify and correct
improper prosecutorial actions. Their input will be invaluable as we move forward with
collaborative discussions focused on solving this problem."
At each stop on the tour, the groups will release new state specific research illustrating
the scope of the problem. This research will mirror research that was released last year in
California by the Veritas Initiative in Preventable Error: A Report on Prosecutorial
Misconduct in California 1997-2009, which documented 707 instances where an
appellate court found misconduct during the 13 year period, but found that only 7
prosecutors were disciplined.
Similar research has been conducted by the Innocence Project in New York State. It
concluded that only a tiny fraction of prosecutorial misconduct charges ever result in
disciplinary action against the offending attorney.
"There's no question that prosecutors have tremendous responsibility to protect our
safety, but everyone suffers when prosecutors put their zeal for winning above finding the
truth. We've seen too many situations where the innocent are unjustly punished because
of prosecutorial misconduct. The current mechanisms of accountability are not working.
These forums are an important step towards reform that is long overdue," said Angela
Davis, professor of law at American University's Washington College of Law and author
of Arbitrary Justice: The Power of the American Prosecutor.
Meanwhile, the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) is collecting information on
pending legislation related to the death penalty. For example, at least nine states will
consider bills to repeal the death penalty in 2012. In California, a coalition called
Taxpayers for Justice has been collecting signatures to place a death penalty repeal
initiative on the ballot in November. Other states considering repeal bills are
Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Maryland, Nebraska, and Pennsylvania.
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