"This is the essential text for Crown counsel who need to operate within the rules of law and for defence counsel who need to identify when prosecutorial misconduct occurs and the remedies that are available. This comprehensive and thought-provoking treatise covers prosecutorial misconduct at every stage of the criminal process and impartially and objectively identifies its elements with specific reference to case law. In addition, Prosecutorial Misconduct provides expert commentary on the tort of malicious prosecution and related civil actions against prosecutors. The second edition updates, expands, re-writes and re-organizes the text to deal with some very substantial developments in the law since the first edition. The Supreme Court of Canada has been very active in addressing a number of areas of prosecutorial misconduct, including malicious prosecution (Miazga v. Kvello Estate; Charter torts (Henry v. B.C.); plea bargaining (R. v. Nixon); and abuse of process (R. v. Anderson). Those cases and others have led to a significant volume of new litigation in Canada. Like the previous edition, this one also covers significant developments abroad, particularly Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States"--Provided by publisher.
This looseleaf treatise provides guidelines on prosecutorial behavior through every stage of the criminal justice process. The work cites thousands of precedent setting cases in the field and spells out the judicial and non-judicial sanctions for prosecutorial misconduct.
The Habeas Citebook: Prosecutorial Misconduct is the latest offering in the Citebook series. Like all books in this series, it's designed to help pro se prisoner litigants identify and raise viable claims for potential habeas corpus relief. It contains several hundred case citations and descriptions, which will save readers many hours of research in identifying winning arguments to successfully challenge their conviction. It's an invaluable resource for anyone seeking habeas relief to overturn his or her conviction.
The Model Rules of Professional Conduct provides an up-to-date resource for information on legal ethics. Federal, state and local courts in all jurisdictions look to the Rules for guidance in solving lawyer malpractice cases, disciplinary actions, disqualification issues, sanctions questions and much more. In this volume, black-letter Rules of Professional Conduct are followed by numbered Comments that explain each Rule's purpose and provide suggestions for its practical application. The Rules will help you identify proper conduct in a variety of given situations, review those instances where discretionary action is possible, and define the nature of the relationship between you and your clients, colleagues and the courts.
What happens when public prosecutors, the most powerful officials in the criminal justice system, seek convictions instead of justice? Why are cases involving well-to-do victims often prosecuted more vigorously than those involving poor victims? Why do wealthy defendants frequently enjoy more lenient plea bargains than the disadvantaged? In this eye-opening work, Angela J. Davis shines a much-needed light on the power of American prosecutors, revealing how the day-to-day practice of even the most well-intentioned prosecutors can result in unequal treatment of defendants and victims. Ranging from mandatory minimum sentencing laws that enhance prosecutorial control over the outcome of cases, to the increasing politicization of the office, Davis uses powerful stories of individuals caught in the system to demonstrate how the perfectly legal exercise of prosecutorial discretion can result in gross inequities in criminal justice. For the paperback edition, Davis provides a new Afterword which covers such recent incidents of prosecutorial abuse as the Jena Six case, the Duke lacrosse case, the Department of Justice firings, and more.
This book examines a prosecutor's ethical responsibilities throughout the criminal justice process in both federal and state practice, and explores constitutional and ethical constraints on prosecutorial discretion. Topics are ordered sequentially as they occur in the progression of a typical criminal case, including the prosecutor's role in the conduct of investigations, contacting and interviewing witnesses, grand jury practice, charging, pre-trial discovery, plea bargaining, jury selection, trial conduct, sentencing, media contacts and post-conviction remedies. The focal point of discussion in each of these areas is a prosecutor's ethical responsibilities under the American Bar Association's Model Rules of Professional Conduct (through 2019) drawing frequent comparisons to significant state variations on the Model Rules, and supplemental guidance provided by the ABA's Criminal Justice Standards: Prosecution Function; the National District Attorneys Standards; and, the Justice Department Manual. The authors also examine constitutional constraints on prosecutorial discretion (particularly under the 5th and 6th Amendments) that at times may deviate from or supplement ethical norms. For the purposes of brevity and ease of reference, the book deviates from the traditional casebook format by summarizing rather than reprinting significant case decisions. Each chapter concludes with practical problems designed to promote class discussion about the appropriate exercise of prosecutorial discretion in hypothetical situations. The book is designed to be used either in a stand-alone seminar on prosecutorial ethics, or as a companion to materials used in a prosecution clinic.
It was the perfect storm. A group of executives with the support of a Fortune 500 rival plotting corporate espionage to destroy a leading insurance brokerage firm. A new U.S. Attorney out to cement his professional status. An FBI team needing a collar. A prosecutor trying to fix his tarnished reputation. A judge looking to solidify his reputation on the bench. A defense attorney worried more about the bottom line than winning his case. And the self-made CEO who didn't see it coming--until the tsunami hit and Michael Segal was drowned in a flood of greed, avarice, deception, self-interest, and an unbridled climb to power. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Maurice Possley tells how the case against Michael Segal was laid, brick by brick, defying justice, evidence and even common sense after he refused to wear an FBI wire to entrap colleagues. As gripping as a legal thriller by Scott Turow or John Grisham, this nonfiction account of how an innocent man was used as a tool by a few unscrupulous people to bolster their own ambitions should raise alarms about how easily the U.S. criminal justice system, at times, can be used and abused for personal gain. Long before facts lost their meaning, Segal's story stood as a terrifying testament to how far manipulating the truth can go and how badly it can hurt the innocent. The United States v. Segal should never have been a case at all. The evidence against Segal was flimsy at best, there were no victims, no misrepresentations, no one lost any money, and it was an accounting crime without any government forensics and incomplete and inaccurate evidence. So why did a man who had no record and was known for his business and philanthropic pursuits receive a prison sentence of 10 years? As Possley takes us down the wormhole into the case, he reveals: The FBI tried to coerce Segal to secretly tape colleagues and business and political acquaintances. Former trusted, top-level employees conspired with a Fortune 500 competitor for months to take Segal's company--or take him down. Segal's personal attorney was bugged and attorney-client privilege went ignored. A former employee hacked into confidential files and delivered hundreds of documents to the group that wanted to seize or destroy his company--and was never even arrested. The stolen files contents were shared with the FBI and prosecutor. The prosecutor never used a government-sanctioned analysis of the supposed accounting crime. No qualified government or independent forensic accounting of his business was ever presented to the court by the government. Hundreds of stolen, company emails, including those with attorney protected, were found on a rival's server. The chief prosecutor had a record of past prosecutorial misconduct allegations. Key witnesses changed their testimonies after being contacted by the FBI. After Segal's lawyers made pretrial motions for his constitutional rights, prosecutors filed superseding indictments. At a time when criminal justice reform is being discussed by all the presidential candidates, Segal's case takes on a new meaning. What is the cost of prosecution for its own sake--and what happens when there is a code of silence and few checks and balances on those who are sworn to uphold the law?
American prosecutors are asked to play two roles within the criminal justice system: they are supposed to be ministers of justice whose only goals are to ensure fair trials—and they are also advocates of the government whose success rates are measured by how many convictions they get. Because of this second role, sometimes prosecutors suppress evidence in order to establish a defendant’s guilt and safeguard that conviction over time. In Prosecution Complex, Daniel S. Medwed shows how prosecutors are told to lock up criminals and protect the rights of defendants. This double role creates an institutional “prosecution complex” that animates how district attorneys’ offices treat potentially innocent defendants at all stages of the process—and that can cause prosecutors to aid in the conviction of the innocent. Ultimately, Prosecution Complex shows how, while most prosecutors aim to do justice, only some hit that target consistently.
