Let's Join Together to Stop Out-of-Control Prosecutors: Malkin

At this unique moment in American history, liberals and conservatives have something in common: an abhorrence of government prosecutors run amok.

Put aside partisan politics for a moment and let's be real: For every honest and principled prosecutor working in the courts, there are obsessive Captain Queegs in office searching for political wins (strawberries!) instead of seeking the truth.

On the opposite side of the aisle, left-leaning criminal justice reformers understand this reality well — and have fought hard to educate the public about the role official misconduct plays in wrongful convictions. Indeed, the National Registry of Exonerations run by the University of Michigan Law School, reported recently that nationwide in 2017, there were a "record-high 84 official misconduct exonerations — or exonerations given because of official misconduct committed by those vested with the power of the law, such as police officers, prosecutors, and governmental officials." That's a stunning 60 percent of exoneration cases last year alone.

Thanks to the warm, fuzzy blanket of prosecutorial immunity, very few of the government actors involved in such misconduct are ever held to account.

That's changing. This week, New York became the first state to create a commission on prosecutorial misconduct. After an intense lobbying battle, Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed the act this week. The legislative effort was spearheaded by exonerees who personally suffered and survived the whims, falsehoods and power trips of district attorneys who suppressed exculpatory evidence, coerced false confessions and solicited false eyewitness testimony from career jailhouse snitches.

Read more at http://cfif.org/v/index.php/commentary/54-state-of-affairs/4191-lets-joi...

Related story at http://www.pennydean.org/content/court-district-attorney-was-not-liable-...