The Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility report on whether the authors of the Bush era torture memos violated professional ethical standards is going to reverse course and absolve John Yoo and Jay Bybee of wrongdoing. Now, it will say they simply exercised poor judgment.

Newsweek broke the story. How the change came about: [More...]

The Texas Commission on Judicial Conduct issued these factual findings (pdf) today in the case of Judge Sharon Keller, presiding judge the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, who in 2007 closed the doors of the clerk's office to the Texas Courthouse at 5:00 pm, knowing a last minute death penalty stay was en route to be filed.

The Commission found her actions, while amounting to bad judgment, were "not nefarious." It says she acted within her discretion and that her actions did not amount to willful or purposeful incompetence.

Unbelievably (or maybe not, considering its coming from the Texecution capital of the world) the opinion blames the defense.

Terry Harrington and Curtis W. McGhee Jr. were wrongfully convicted of murder in Iowa and served 25 years. The Iowa Supreme Court vacated their convictions, saying the prosecutors failed to disclose exculpatory evidence of an alternative suspect.

The men then sued in federal court, also alleging the prosecutors had procured false testimony against them. They won on that claim, and the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed, holding a prosecutor’s procurement of false testimony “violates a [criminal defendant’s] substantive due process rights.” The Supreme Court agreed to decide the case and heard oral arguments. The case was Pottawattamie County v. McGhee, 08-1065.

Now, a settlement has been reached. Harrington and McGhee will get $12 million, and the Supreme Court has dismissed the case, meaning no ruling will be forthcoming on whether prosecutors can claim personal immunity for such misdeeds. [More...]

Last week, U.S. District Court Judge Cormac J. Carmey, before closing arguments, dismissed a federal prosecution against William Ruehle, former CEO of Broadcom, and another defendant charged in a stock options backdating case. He also vacated a guilty plea of a third defendant who had cooperated with the Government and done nothing wrong. The grounds: prosecutorial misconduct.

The defendants were represented by major white collar lawyers, including Brendan Sullivan of Williams & Connolly, and lawyers from Skaaden, Arps.

I just received a copy of the transcript. It's probably the strongest condemnation of prosecutorial abuse I've ever read. Any federal criminal defense lawyer reading through the list of abuses will be reminded of some of his or her clients these same things have happened to, but weren't fortunate enough to prove it. [More...]

The New York Inspector General's Office has released its report (available here) on the trace evidence section of the New York State Crime lab and it's chilling.

The New York State Police’s supervision of a crime laboratory was so poor that it overlooked evidence of pervasively shoddy forensics work, allowing an analyst to go undetected for 15 years as he falsified test results and compromised nearly one-third of his 322 cases, an investigation by the state’s inspector general has found.

The examiners in the trace evidence section examine fibers, arson residue, footwear impressions, glass, hair, and other evidence. It finds that State Police Forensic Scientist Garry Veeder, who committed suicide in 2008 while under investigation, "failed to conduct required tests while examining fiber evidence and falsified records to conceal his misconduct." [More...]

Ever wonder what really goes on during the execution of a search warrant for drugs? Hopefully, this is an anomaly. Watch as Lakeland, FL Sheriff's deputies play a Wii bowling game on the suspects' TV for 9 straight hours. They were caught by his home security camera. The funniest part is the cop who jumps up and down for joy when getting a strike. The somber tone of the newscaster in describing the suspect (as if he's Jack the Ripper) is a bit odd. At first I wondered if he was trying out for a remake of Dick Tracy but then he gets really into describing the game action.

Dr. Steven Hayne was removed from the list of approved coroners in Mississippi. Now, coroners there are trying to rewrite the rules to bring him back. Radly Balko reports:

But now a sizable number of Mississippi's elected county coroners are plotting to bring Hayne back by redrawing law-enforcement boundaries to sidestep state law.

The background to Dr. Hayne:

Hayne had come under heavy criticism in the preceding months, including an October 2007 investigation and series of follow-up stories in Reason; the DNA exonerations of two men wrongly convicted of rape and murder due largely to testimony from Hayne and his frequent collaborator, the disgraced bite mark expert Dr. Michael West; and the Mississippi State Supreme Court's dismissal of Hayne's dubious testimony [PDF] in the murder trial of then-13-year-old Tyler Edmonds. Hayne, who is not board-certified in forensic pathology, had been performing 1,200 to 1,800 autopsies per year, several times the maximum number allowed by his field's certifying organization.

One of our prior posts on Hayne is here. Reaction from Innocence Projects: [More...]

Late last year, TalkLeft called attention to Benton Harbor, Michigan police officer Andrew Collins, who invented facts that he swore to be true in applications for search warrants. His misconduct caused seven convictions to be reopened and dismissed.

Benton Harbor police officer Bernard Hall apparently decided to emulate Collins. Like Collins, Hall fictionalized the affidavits upon which he relied to obtain warrants. Like Collins, he also stole from the people he searched. Six people have had their charges dismissed or their convictions set aside, and arrest warrants against three others have been withdrawn, as a result of Hall's wrongdoing.

Late last month, former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman asked the judge who presided over his corruption trial to grant him a new trial on the ground that evidence of prosecutorial misconduct had recently been discovered by his co-defendant, Richard Scrushy. Siegelman's motion (pdf) alleges (among other facts) that federal prosecutors failed to disclose exculpatory evidence, including their extensive coaching of witnesses, and failed to correct false or misleading testimony during trial.

Justice Department paralegal Tamarah Grimes was a key source of the new information cited in Siegelman's motion. Grimes was fired after writing a lengthy letter to Attorney General Eric Holder outlining her observations of prosecutorial misconduct in Siegelman's case.

In recent days, attention has focused on allegations that the government induced the cooperation of a key witness, former Siegelman aide Nick Bailey, by making an implied threat to expose his alleged sexual relationship with Siegelman. [more ...]

Who polices the police? We do -- thanks to the NAACP's Rapid Report System.

[The Rapid Report System is] a quick, effective way for citizens to report instances of police misconduct, and to help public safety officials move beyond the “tough on crime” policies that have lost their effectiveness.

Witnesses to police misconduct can document their observations by sending text messages and forwarding pictures and videos taken with a cell phone to a central location. Web-based reporting is also available.

Why is the initiative necessary? [more ...]

Agnes Lawless was rear-ended while driving in northeast Philadelphia. Fortunately, the car that collided with hers was traveling slowly and did little damage. Unfortunately, the driver (who left without stopping) immediately drove to the police department, where he apparently told his father, Officer Alberto Lopez Sr., that it was Lawless who caused the collision. Officer Lopez, accompanied by his son, drove around in his patrol car until they spotted Lawless' car at a convenience store.

Lawless was standing at the counter of the store, at Comly Road and Roosevelt Boulevard, smiling and chatting with the clerk, when she was grabbed from behind and violently pushed back with a police officer's gun in her face.

"He hit me with his left hand, and he had his gun in his right hand," Lawless said. "He pushed his gun into the left side of my neck. It caused a scrape-type bruise on my neck." After a chaotic struggle, Lawless was arrested and charged with assaulting the officer.

Lawless spent the night in jail. [more ...]

The former head of Internal Affairs at the Baltimore Police Department, Joann Branche, says "the department is rife with corruption and turns a blind eye to bad officers patrolling the streets." Branche was fired in April for allegedly backdating documents so that disciplinary charges (which must be filed within a year of the alleged misconduct) would appear to have been timely filed. The president of the black police officers' union claims that Branche allowed charges against white officers to lapse while she pursued charges against black officers.

Blanche was fired five months after being promoted and given a $30,000 raise, a fact that lends some credibility to her contention that charging decisions were micromanaged by a Deputy Police Commissioner who interfered with her decision-making. According to Blanche, punishment was based on who the accused officer knew and back-door deals were struck with officers who were well connected.

[more ...]