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American Bar Association Issues New Guidelines on Prosecutorial Ethics

The American Bar Associate recently issued an important opinion expanding a prosecutor's ethical duties.  Significantly, the ABA has interpreted the Rules of Professional Conduct to be more demanding than constitutional requirements under Brady v. Maryland.  The ethical bar has been raised.Entitled, "Prosecutor's Duty to Disclose Evidence and Information Favorable to the Defense," Formal Opinion 09-454 begins:Rule 3.8(d) of the Model Rules of Professional Conduct requires a prosecutor to ?make timely disclosure to the defense of all evidence or information known to the prosecutor that tends to negate the guilt of the accused or mitigates the offense, and, in connection with sentencing, [to] disclose to the defense and to the tribunal all unprivileged mitigating information known to the prosecutor...continue to full post

Full post as published by Crime & Federalism on September 02, 2009 (boomark / email).