Prosecutorial Misconduct: Taking the Justice Out of Criminal Justice

by Christopher Zoukis

The prosecutor has more control over life, liberty, and reputation than any other person in America. His discretion is tremendous.... While the prosecutor at his best is one of the most beneficent forces in our society, when he acts from malice or other base motives, he is one of the worst.
—Former U.S. Attorney General Robert Jackson

 

In a recent case before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, veteran judge Henry F. Floyd offered a rare public rebuke of federal prosecutors in North Carolina, who, the court found, had engaged in a pattern of misconduct.

“Mistakes happen,” Floyd wrote. “Flawless trials are desirable but rarely attainable. Nevertheless, the frequency of the ‘flubs’ committed by [the prosecutors] raises questions regarding whether the errors are fairly characterized as unintentional.”

“Yet the United States Attorney’s office in this district seems unfazed by the fact that discovery abuses violate constitutional guarantees and misrepresentations erode faith that justice is achievable,” he added. “Something must be done.”

To demonstrate the seriousness of the violations, the appellate court ordered a new trial for federal prisoner Gregory Bartko, who had been convicted ...

D.C. Circuit Rules Detainee Treatment Act Not Subject to § 1983 Remedy

 

by Derek Gilna

 

A John Doe plaintiff, a U.S. citizen and employee of an American-owned defense contracting firm performing Arabic translating in Iraq, was taken into custody and held at Camp Cropper near the Baghdad International Airport for nine months. Doe, who was never formally charged with a crime, claims that he was beaten and choked by guards, and confined with al Qaeda and Ba'ath Party members before being returned to the U.S. and ultimately released. He brought an action in 2008 against former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, other U.S. government officers, and the U.S. government.

 

Doe's lawsuit requested that the District Court find Rumsfeld personally liable for violating his rights under the Detainee Treatment Act, or DTA, and for violating his constitutional rights guaranteed under the Fifth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments on the theory that Rumsfeld "developed, authorized, and implemented the policies that caused him harm." The district court dismissed the DTA claims, procedural due process, and access to court claims, "holding that Doe had not pled sufficient facts to overcome Secretary Rumsfeld's qualified immunity defense."

 

The district court did permit Doe's ...

Exonerated Chicago Man Settles Lawsuit for $3.6 Million

 

By Matthew Clarke

 

In January 2012, the City of Chicago settled a lawsuit against the city and five Chicago police officers brought by a man who was exonerated after nine years of incarceration for $3,600,000.

 

Robert Wilson was arrested ...

North Carolina: Hundreds of Federal Prisoners Legally Innocent, Some Still Incarcerated

by Derek Gilna

Following a 2011 federal appellate court ruling, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) initially tried to delay the release of federal prisoners who were wrongly convicted in North Carolina. The government later announced that it would halt such tactics, but has continued to oppose challenges filed by some offenders who are legally innocent.

The DOJ’s actions followed a review of prosecutions in three federal courts in North Carolina. DOJ spokesman Wyn Hornbuckle said “many more” cases could surface when all of the state’s federal court cases are examined.

The prisoners were convicted of possessing firearms in what the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals held was a misapplication of the sentencing criteria, a circumstance unique to North Carolina due to the state’s system of “structured sentencing.” Adopted by the state legislature in 1993, the system mandates that the maximum prison term for any given crime is based on the offender’s criminal record. As a result, sentences for even minor crimes can extend for years if a defendant has numerous prior offenses.

Federal law provides that anyone convicted of a crime punishable by more than a year in ...

A mentally ill detainee who was placed in solitary confinement in a New Mexico county jail for nearly two years, without adequate medical or mental health care, accepted a $15.5 million settlement for violations of his civil rights.

Stephen Slevin, 59, served almost 22 months in solitary confinement between 2005 and 2007 at the Doña Ana County Detention Center in Las Cruces, New Mexico. On January 24, 2012, a federal jury awarded him $22 million. The award was upheld by a federal judge after county officials challenged it as being excessive, but Slevin decided in February 2013 to accept a $15.5 million settlement and end the legal battle without further appeals.

“It has been a long and hard fight to bring Mr. Slevin justice,” said one of his attorneys, Matthew Coyte. “This settlement, although very large, does not give back to Mr. Slevin what was taken from him, but if it prevents others from enduring the pain and suffering he was subjected to, then the fight has been worthwhile.”

Slevin’s ordeal began on August 24, 2005, when he was booked into the jail on charges of driving while intoxicated and receiving or transferring a stolen vehicle.

“He was driving through ...

The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a district court’s ruling that state corrections employees could be held liable only for their own initial 2- to 3-minute detention of two suspects, and not for further detention that occurred after the suspects were transferred to police custody.

New Mexico Corrections Department employees Gary Carson and Don Mangin were patrolling a high-crime neighborhood with Rio Rancho police officers as part of a task force when they observed Phillip Martinez, Ricardo Sarmiento and a third man outside an apartment building.

When the officers turned on their emergency lights, the third man fled and one of the police officers chased after him. Carson and Mangin drew their weapons and forced Martinez and Sarmiento to the ground, then cuffed and searched them.

Still cuffed, Martinez and Sarmiento were transferred to the custody of other Rio Rancho police officers several minutes later. They were arrested, booked and detained; Sarmiento was held for five hours and Martinez for twelve hours.

Martinez and Sarmiento filed a 42 U.S.C. § 1983 suit in federal court against Carson, Mangin and several Rio Rancho defendants, alleging unlawful seizure in violation of the Fourth Amendment.

Denying the parties’ cross-motions for summary judgment, ...

Viterbo Liranzo, born in the Dominican Republic, was a U.S. citizen through section 321 of the Immigration and Naturalization Act, which conferred derivative citizenship on children of U.S. citizens. He was required to apply for a certificate of citizenship, but did not do so. Instead, he applied for and received a resident alien card (or “green card”) to remain in the United States. Federal immigration records mistakenly indicated he was a lawful permanent resident.

In 2005, Liranzo was convicted of criminal sale of a controlled substance, a felony, which subjected him to possible deportation. He was detained by immigration agents after he told them he was a citizen of the Dominican Republic, and held in custody for seven months beyond his release date. He was then transported to the Federal Detention Center in Oakdale, Louisiana, where his attorney convinced the government that he was, in fact, a U.S. citizen based on his entitlement to derivative citizenship.

Liranzo exhausted his administrative remedies with the Department of Homeland Security and filed suit in U.S. District Court in New York in 2008, seeking damages for “false arrest and imprisonment” and other tortious conduct. Following two years of discovery, the government raised the defense ...

On April 9, 2013, Prison Legal News editor Paul Wright sat down with Jeffrey Deskovic as part of PLN's ongoing series of interviews concerning our nation's criminal justice system. Previously, PLN interviewed famous actor Danny Trejo [PLN, Aug. 2011, p.1] and millionaire media mogul and former federal prisoner Conrad Black [PLN, Sept. 2012, p.1].

Jeff Deskovic was 16 years old when he was accused of raping and murdering a classmate, Angela Correa, in Peekskill, New York in November 1989. He was interrogated, polygraphed and threatened by the police for over 7 hours without his parents or an attorney present, and eventually "confessed" to the crime. [See: PLN, April 2011, p.18]. DNA testing revealed that the semen found in the victim's body was not his, yet he was prosecuted anyway based on his coerced confession, convicted of second-degree murder and first-degree rape, and sentenced to 15 years to life in 1991.

Jeff sought post-conviction relief but his appeals were denied; his attorney filed his habeas corpus petition four days late due to misinformation from the court clerk, which led to an appeal to the Second Circuit. Then-circuit court judge Sonia Sotomayor was on the panel that denied his appeal in April ...

A $30,000 settlement was reached in an action filed against the Washington Department of Corrections (D.O.C.) for miscalculation of good-time credits resulting in false imprisonment.

Charles D. Hardt was a prisoner at Airway Heights Correctional Center. With proper calculation of his good-time credit, he should have been released on July 14, 1998. Due to a miscalculation by D.O.C., Hardt was not released until some later undisclosed time, resulting in illegal restraint in violation of Hardt’s due process rights.

Settlement was reached on December 21, 2000, awarding Hardt $30,000 in damages. See: Washington Division of Risk Management claim #31050951

The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals has held that the overdetention of two prisoners was not due to deliberate indifference on the part of officials at Alabama’s Mobile County Jail. The Court’s ruling affirmed the grant of summary judgment to the defendants.

The 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action alleged Fourth Amendment violations for the overdetentions of plaintiffs Bentley West and Jerry Rainey. West was incarcerated on November 2, 2002, for a marijuana possession charge. On December 4, a court order lowered his bond, allowing him to execute a signature bond on his behalf. Despite that, he was not released until December 27.

Rainey was jailed on October 31, 2002, on robbery charges. A grand jury no-billed him on March 27, 2003, and a court order to release him was sent to the jail that day. Nonetheless, he was not released until May 24. The Alabama federal district court found the defendants were entitled to qualified immunity.

The defendants fell into two classes: non-supervisory and supervisory. The Eleventh Circuit stated that human error does not equal deliberate indifference. The Court found that the plaintiffs failed to demonstrate anything more than their overdetention resulted from negligence or human error.

A common problem ...