Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Law Students Blogs -> Nuts & Boalts

Law Students

: Nuts & Boalts

Teach Me, Coach Me, but Prosecute HIM!

By Patrick

This NY Times article describes an example of what is, to me, the most compelling argument against the death penalty: sometimes we screw up.

The short version of the story is that Virginia prosecutors coached a witness to lie in order to achieve a murder conviction against his confederate. The slightly longer version is that for a decade the Virginia bar, for whatever reason, contributed exactly nothing to bringing forward allegations of prosecutor misconduct.

The article alludes to legal ethics. I would like to know the answer to this question: What legal ethics rule did the bar think they were enforcing? Assuming they dropped the ball (which, in fairness, may not be the case -- there could be more to the story than the Times has to say) how does one go about bringing charges of misconduct against the bar?

Full post as published by Nuts & Boalts on January 20, 2008 (boomark / email).