Good Articles and Links
Links:
- Dubious Accusations and Convictions
- The National Center for Reason and Justice
- The Institute for Psychological Therapies
- Justice Now
- Justice Denied
- Voice of Justice
- People Aligned To Replace Injustice & Cruelty With Knowledge
- National Child Abuse Defense & Resource Center
- B4U-Act, Living in Truth and Dignity
Videos on YouTube regarding Judge Paul Czajka:
Good Articles:
“Prosecutor Becomes Prosecuted,” by Adam Liptak, The New York Times, 6/24/07, pg. WK-4
“The misconduct that cost the prosecutor in the Duke lacrosse case his career certainly seemed to call for a severe penalty: he withheld evidence from the defense, misled the court, and inflamed the public.
"Yet other prosecutors found by the courts to have done similar things have almost never lost their jobs or their licenses to practice law. Even in the aftermath of prosecutorial wrongdoing that helped put innocent men on death row, discipline has been light or non-existent.
"A prosecutor’s violation of the obligation to disclose favorable evidence accounts for more miscarriages of justice than any other type of malpractice, but is rarely sanctioned by the courts, and almost never by disciplinary bodies.’” Benett L. Gershman wrote in his treatise, ‘Prosecutorial Misconduct.’
“Mr. Gershman, a former prosecutor in Manhattan who teaches law at Pace University, said … ‘You have rogue prosecutors all over the country who have engaged in far, far more egregious conduct, and in a pattern of cases,’ he added. ‘And nothing happens.’”
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“Rewarding Rogue Prosecutors,” by Jonathan Turley, The Washington Post (summarized in The Week, 7/31/07)
“The saga of disgraced North Carolina prosecutor Michael Nifong is unusual … but not because Nifong abused his power. What makes Nifong stand out is that he was actually held accountable for showing more interest in making headlines than finding the truth. Nifong was disbarred last week because he pursued a gang-rape prosecution against three Duke lacrosse players based on faulty evidence. But ambitious prosecutors, unfortunately, often let their ambition warp their judgment. ‘Instead of being punished, the worst violators are often lionized for their aggressive styles.’ CNN’s Nancy Grace is a perfect case in point: As an Alabama prosecutor, she was ‘notorious’ for playing loose with the rules. Like Nifong, she sometimes forgot to disclose exculpatory evidence to defense lawyers. Now she’s a highly paid TV star. Other ‘tough on crime’ prosecutors capitalize on high-profile cases to run for higher office, or get lucrative jobs as defense lawyers. The ‘Grace effect’ is not lost on young prosecutors who ‘try to outdo one another as camera-ready, take-no-prisoners avengers of justice.’ Unless the defendants whose lives they ruin can afford good lawyers, they are often never heard from again.”
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“The Presence of Malice,” by Richard Moran, The New York Times, 8/2/07, pg. A17
“Last week, Judge Nancy Gertner of the Federal District Court in Boston awarded more than $100 million to four men whom the FBI framed for [a] 1965 murder … It was compensation for the 30 years the men spent behind bars while agents withheld evidence that would have cleared them …
"Most coverage of the story described it as a bizarre exception in the history of law enforcement. Unfortunately, this kind of behavior by those whose sworn duty is to uphold the law is all too common. In state courts … it occurs regularly.
"My recent completed studies of the 124 exonerations in America from 1973 to 2007 indicated that 80, or about two-thirds, of their so-called wrongful convictions resulted not from good-faith mistakes or errors but from intentional, willful, malicious prosecutions by criminal justice personnel.
"Yet too often this behavior is not singled out for what it is. When a prosecutor puts a witness on the stand whom he knows to be lying, or fails to turn over evidence favorable to the defense, or when a police officer manufactures or destroys evidence to further the likelihood of a conviction, then it is deceptive to term these conscious violations of the law -- all of which I found in my research -- as merely mistakes or errors.
"Since so many wrongful convictions result from official malicious behavior, prosecutors, policemen, witnesses, or even jurors and judges should themselves face jail time for breaking the law in obtaining an unlawful conviction." [Emphases added.]
