CHAPTER 5 DISCUSSIONGiven that the U.S. Supreme Court has eliminated the ability for the wrongfullyconvicted to sue District Attorney's Offices, how could we reduce prosecutorialmisconduct?Read the paragraphs below and answer the questions.Prosecutor MisconductProsecutors swear an oath to serve the interests of justice when carrying out their duties, and thevast majority of prosecutors do that in good faith. However, there has been a growing call tocreate a system that addresses intentional misconduct by prosecutors. What is prosecutorialmisconduct? It includes any actions that violate the rights of defendants. A prosecutor need notviolate rights deliberately. It can be unintentional and still be considered misconduct (AmericanBar Association, 2009). Prosecutorial misconduct generally involves violations of the rules ofcriminal procedure. One example is an attempt to bias a jury by discussing evidence a judge hasruled inadmissible.It can also include allowing false testimony on the stand by a witness. In thesecases, an effective defense attorney and judge can work against the prosecutor to provide morebalanced testimony to juries. However, in many cases prosecutors come across evidence that isfavorable to the defendant. This can include DNA or other forensic and physical evidence, theidentification of other possible suspects, and evidence that makes a witness less credible. Therules of criminal procedure require that prosecutors reveal this evidence to defense attorneys. Inmany cases they do not and these cases of misconduct often go undiscovered because there is nocounterbalance other than the professional ethics and conscious of the prosecutor (Smith v. Cain,2011).In a number of cases, prosecutors have deliberately violated the criminal procedures in order toobtain a conviction. Many of these cases involved people who were factually innocent of thecrimes and some have been sentenced to death as a result of the prosecutors' actions. In manywrongful conviction cases, the evidence that could have established innocence that was notdisclosed at trial. This is a miscarriage of justice in two ways. First, an innocent person is unjustlypunished. Second, the real perpetrator has not been apprehended and is free to cause harm to othervictims (Acker, 2012).
