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Does police misconduct justify (only) a sentence reduction by precluding the death penalty?

By Douglas A. Berman

The question in the title of this post is prompted by this interesting story about a state trial judge's ruling in a double-murder trial in North Carolina.  The story is headlined "No death penalty in slayings of 2 Charlotte officers, judge rules," and here are the details: A Mecklenburg County judge ruled Tuesday that Demeatrius Montgomery should not face the death penalty because a detective's misconduct has tainted the trial in the killings of two Charlotte police officers. But Superior Court Judge Forrest Bridges allowed the trial to continue, rejecting a request by Montgomery's attorneys to dismiss the murder charges entirely. Bridges called the case a "moving target." He said former police Detective Arvin Fant's admission that he threw away and plagiarized notes has "placed a cloud of suspicion over these proceedings...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on August 25, 2010 (boomark / email).