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A sentencing approach to dealing with prosecutorial misconduct

By Douglas A. Berman

Professor Sonja Starr has posted this interesting and provocative paper on SSRN. The piece is titled "Sentence Reduction as a Remedy for Prosecutorial Misconduct," and here is the abstract: Current remedies for prosecutorial misconduct, such as reversal of conviction or dismissal of charges, are rarely granted by courts and thus do not deter prosecutors effectively.  Further, such all-or-nothing remedial schemes are often problematic from corrective and expressive perspectives, especially when misconduct has not affected the trial verdict.  When granted, such remedies produce windfalls to guilty defendants and provoke public resentment, undermining their expressive value in condemning misconduct.  To avoid such windfalls, courts must refuse to grant any remedy at all, either refusing to recognize violations or deeming them harmless...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on September 09, 2008 (boomark / email).