Prosecute Bad Prosecutors

I've written before about the need for prosecutors who abuse their offices to be prosecuted.

Joe Nocera wrote today about Ken Anderson, a district judge in Texas who faces prosecution for actions he took as a prosecuting attorney in the late 1980s which sent Michael Morton, an innocent man, to prison for life. Put simply, Anderson suppressed evidence that would have exonerated Morton...who was released a year ago after serving 25 years for a crime he didn't commit.

But Anderson's prosecution is still not certain. He will go before a Court of Inquiry (an institution unique to Texas among the states), which has the power, as I understand it, to pass the case along to a prosecutor, who could then take it before a grand jury etc.

Anderson's attorneys argue that the statute of limitations expired three years after the alleged withholding of evidence. The attorneys for Michael Morton argue that Anderson's crime never ended until Morton's release from prison in October 2011, that the statute of limitations begins then. I like the logic of that argument. Every day Morton was in prison, Anderson was committing a crime.

I'd like to see Anderson go to jail for 25 years. But I believe the maximum he could get is 10 years. Even that would be a measure of justice.

Equally reprehensible were the actions of Anderson's successor as prosecutor, John Bradley. Bradley fought for years to prevent DNA testing on a bloody rag, which testing was finally done and exonerated Morton and proved guilty a second man who later went on to commit and be convicted for another murder. So the prosecutor's misconduct not only convicted an innocent man, but helped allow the guilty man to remain free to commit another murder.

Bradley's actions in fighting the DNA testing, as incomprehensible and indefensible as they are, don't rise to the level of a crime because it was all done openly and he was within his rights to do it. The only justice for him is that the primary voters rejected his bid for reelection by a large margin a few months after Morton was released from prison.