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Report: Concealed evidence led to wrongful convictions
January 11, 1999
CHICAGO (CNN) -- Prosecutors throughout the United States have suppressed evidence in hundreds of cases which resulted in wrongful convictions, according to a Chicago Tribune analysis.
A study of homicide cases across the country revealed 381 reversed convictions since 1963 for serious misconduct on the part of prosecutors, including using false evidence or concealing evidence which suggested innocence, the Tribune said Monday.
The newspaper reviewed thousands of national and local cases, including more than 5,000 Illinois and Cook County cases spanning two decades, during its probe of prosecutorial misconduct. More than 90 percent of reversals had involved jury trials, the study showed.
Cook County, Illinois records reveal "trial after trial where prosecutors cheated, lied or spun out of control during arguments for a jury," the paper said. Retrials and appeals involving prosecutors' misconduct have cost taxpayers millions of dollars, according to the report.
Some misconduct was directed against black men, who were convicted despite evidence implicating white suspects, the report said.
"Winning has become more important than doing justice. Nobody runs for the Senate saying I did justice," says Harvard University law professor Alan Dershowitz, a longtime critic of prosecutors. Since a 1963 U.S. Supreme Court ruling designed to curb misconduct by prosecutors, 67 of the nearly 400 later-reversed cases involved the death penalty, the Tribune said.
These included the cases of Verneal Jimerson of Illinois and Kirk Bloodsworth of Maryland, who were exonerated by DNA tests; and Randall Dale Adams of Texas, whose wrongful conviction was revealed by the documentary "The Thin Blue Line".
Nearly 30 of 67 death row inmates were later freed, but most had spent at least five years in prison. Of the remainder, 25 were convicted again but didn't receive the death penalty, four were convicted and returned to death row and 10 cases are pending.
In Texas, prosecutors didn't disclose that a blood-spatter expert had supported Susie Mowbray's claim that her husband shot himself. She was acquitted at retrial.
In New Jersey, prosecutors concealed evidence indicating the killer was their chief witness -- not Vincent Landano, the defendant, according to the report. At a new trial, Landano was acquitted.
Three Illinois prosecutors face felony charges
Illinois' record for misconduct by prosecutors ranks among the worst, the Tribune found. Only New York state has more cases. This month, three former DuPage County, Illinois prosecutors face trial on charges of conspiring to frame Rolando Cruz, who served some 10 years on death row before being acquitted at his third trial on charges of murdering 10-year-old Jeanine Nicarico. If convicted of felony misconduct, the case would represent a first in the United States.
Former Cook County prosecutor Gregg Owen was cited by an appellate court for 50 instances of misconduct in a single case.
Although appellate courts have termed some prosecutors' actions intolerable and illegal, none involved in the overturned homicide cases were convicted of a crime for hiding evidence or presenting false evidence, the Tribune found. Two were indicted, but charges were dismissed.
Many prosecutors accused of misconduct advanced in their careers, becoming judges, district attorneys, or landing even higher office.
In Georgia, George "Buddy" Darden became a congressman after a court concluded he withheld evidence in a case where seven men, later exonerated, were convicted of murder and one was sentenced to death.
A spokesman for a prosecutors' group says most follow the rules and honor their obligations. "I believe the great majority of prosecutors in this country are truly dedicated to doing their jobs in the proper fashion," said John Justice, president of the National District Attorneys Association and a South Carolina prosecutor.
Nevertheless, Bennett Gershman, a law professor at Pace University in White Plains, New York, who has written extensively about prosecutor misconduct calls misconduct a "serious cancer in our system of justice." "There is no check on prosecutorial misconduct except for the prosecutor's own attitudes and beliefs and inner morality," he said.
The Tribune report examined about 11,000 court cases, 8,700 news stories and other legal research materials, and interviewed legal officials across the country.
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