Can you imagine?

Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins is pushing for severe punishment for those that violate the law. Nothing new about that, right? Well, the difference is the potential offenders might well be in his own office. Or any other District Attorney's office in the State.

District Attorney Watkins is seeking stiff penalties for prosecutors that hide evidence. Watkins is apparently seeking to have prosecutors who hide evidence from the defense subject to either criminal penalties or disbarment for their actions.

Dallas County leads the nation in wrongful convictions overturned by DNA testing. Mr. Watkins' office has seen 17 people formally exonerated by DNA testing since 2001, the highest such number in the country. Texas likewise leads the nation with 31 in that time frame.

What is the likelihood that the Texas Legislature will enact a new criminal statute that deals with prosecutorial misconduct by not revealing Brady evidence? Michelle Moore, a board member of the Texas Innocence Project and a Dallas County public defender says it's unlikely. I would agree.

But imagine it actually happened. What if the Texas Legislature, in all of its infinite wisdom (again, this is an example of sarcasm) decided that a prosecutor who swore an oath to seek justice committed a criminal act when he withheld evidence that might indicate the accused was not in fact guilty of the crime with which he was charged? Imagine if the legislature actually felt that such conduct was so abominable as to constitute a criminal statute similar to this, this and this. What would that really mean for the guy who is looking at 43 years in prison? (That 43 link is also important here ,though off topic.)

Well, I'm thinking about this and I wonder if it would have an impact on the judicial process. Let's look at an example. Say your client gets convicted and is sentenced to 35 years. The appeals process is exhausted. Then about 7 years after the verdict, the prosecutor who was trying the case is charged under the new anti-convicting-the-innocent law. We'll call it Tulia's Law. Does that affect your client's case?

If this happened, it would seem logical that word would trickle through the local criminal bar that such-and-such prosecutor is being charged with a violation of Tulia's Law. It would be logical (and this may just be me thinking here) that Tulia's Law would be at least a third degree felony in order to have any real substance to it. Can you imagine the posturing that prosecution would entail? What if the prosecutor still worked at the D.A.'s office? What if the prosecutor is now a judge? What if the prosecutor was now deemed one of the best defense attorneys in the state?

What would be the requisite level of intent? Is it enough to recklessly withhold evidence, or should it be more? Should it be intentionally? Could it be a specific intent crime? Can you imagine all of the defenses that could be crafted into that? Mistake of fact? Mistake of law? Public duty? Nuremberg? Bueller?... Bueller?... Bueller?

Imagine, if you will, the scenario of the D.A.'s office wherein the prosecuted prosecutor went on to get elected to the bench only to be prosecuted under Tulia's Law. The judge doesn't want to plead to anything (what would be a lesser included?) so she roles the dice and goes to trial. Think of the fireworks when she takes the stand and claims the long-entrenched District Attorney herself ordered the poor prosecutor to withhold the evidence.

I should write a book on something like this. This could be good stuff. I'm still wrapping my mind around the consequences of this one, so I'll write more later.

Comments

[L.V.Hall]

I'm just a voter.
However, I've been 'Sick' over the SHAME in Texas for a long time.
1) The 17th innocent man said that they would have given him probation and let him out if he would have admitted to being quilty, but he was innocent; and he said that when refusing to admit to quilt "I had to stand for something." And he stood for the TRUTH.
THAT'S A HEART BREAKER.
2) And 17? in Dallas alone? SHAME
3) What about the GETER CASE, whereby there was evidence he was AT WORK. It took Television's 60 minutes to break that.... Why? Why? Why?
4) And all the drug addiction kids in with criminals? Why? And the JUDGE forced these young ones with "IF you don't admit to guilt and if I have to go to trial I'll send you up to the max, 20 years." And then the attorney says "Don't worry, you'll be out in 8 months with good behavior." And the young kid signs away his 'life' even IF, IF, IF, he was truly innocent. It's a proven fact that young people can be 'forced' into any statement. How many of these guys are in prison too? To get out in 8 months? but really in prison to better learn what?
5) And are you trying to pass laws now to put the homeless in jail too? Why? Heard you were.
6) Why? Money! $$$$$$$$$$$$. Right? If each town in Texas has a little prison that's about $135 per day per bed. That's good Revenue. And keeping those beds full IS done at any cost. Right? I'm reading it in my little home town paper. "Just look how much money we can make" the paper says. ===== Forget the parks and baseball projects, this is better money.
7) And 85 per-cent of black men in Texas prisons? And this doesn't ring a bell in anyone's brain?
8) And the ZERO TOLERANCE of a school system still trying to climb up from the 70's down-sizing to a true hi-school diploma and Texas is near the bottom? Well, Texas has a test that encourages teachers to bully the D and C students just before the test whereby they walk out in frustration. Great! Seen it happen!!!! And these kids are great candidates for the bed system. Look at the money they can make for a small town. (Close call for my neighbors, but luckily they were able to pull their kids back in by using home schooling)

8) SO! Where's the CARPENTERS? Will they get here before the ASSYRIANS DO?