Worse, as revealed by the current Innocence Project's research into prosecutorial misconduct, County and State Bar Associations rarely ask prosecutors to explain what looks distinctly fishy to their fellow lawyers. And the reason is exactly that: Most of the time, it's the fellow lawyer angle that shuts down the bar associations. It's go along to get along.
In general, we're only reminded about prosecutorial misconduct when it triggers a major news story. The most heartless one I know concerns the FBI laboratory, as it used to be. Twenty years ago, as many as 10,000 accused men and women were convicted on the strength of bogus forensic tests and were sentenced to prison terms. The Department of Justice attempted a wholesale cover up and gave correct information only to prosecutors, not defense attorneys.
Thanks to the Washington Post, the DOJ fessed up and promised to review every one of the convictions meted out on the basis of faux "evidence."
Time -- and insistent journalism -- will help tell us whether the DOJ is making good on its promise.
As to other promises -- cleaning up the forensics racket, for example -- there are glimmers of hope. In addition to the DOJ's investigation of the FBI's faux "evidence," proposed legislation has recently been introduced in both House and Senate.
Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, and Reps. Eddie Bernice
Johnson, Donna Edwards and Daniel Lipinski of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology have introduced bills mandating scientific review and standards for forensic sciences.
The bills are designed to address the wide ranging deficiencies in scientific validation and the lack of oversight of forensic sciences that were highlighted in a 2009 report by the National Academy
of Sciences.
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