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Karen Ann Escobar is Unethical Prosecutor

Another day, another unethical prosecutor.  From United States v. Nobari (here): The defendants raise several claims on appeal, including an allegation that the prosecution improperly presented, as evidence of the defendants? guilt, testimony that drew generalizations on the basis of ethnicity about ?Middle Easterners? and ?Mexicans.? You need to read pages *9657-9662  (6-11 of the .pdf) of the opinion to get a sense for the argument.  It was a classic ethnic syllogism: "All Mexicans cook meth.  The defendant is a Mexican.  Therefore, the defendant cooked meth."  It really was that bad.  Here is what the prosecutor said in closing argument:[W]ithin the context of methamphetamine manufacturing, the fact that George, Shino and Nobari happened to be Assyrian, happened to be Middle Eastern is significant because, as you heard, Middle Easterners typically occupy the role of pill broker and are not involved in the actual manufacture of methamphetamine...continue to full post

Full post as published by Crime & Federalism on July 24, 2009 (boomark / email).