Ruling could put prosecutor on trial

[flashl]

Source: Chicago Tribune


Anthony Harris' murder confession was coerced and inaccurate. He's suing official who used it against him.

The legal story of Anthony Harris began in July 1998 when the 12-year-old boy was charged with the murder of a 5-year-old girl. Now his case has wound its way through state and federal courtrooms and even reaches into the sands of Iraq.

Nearly a decade after Harris was convicted—wrongly, the courts have since ruled—of the murder of Devan Duniver in New Philadelphia, Ohio, a city south of Cleveland, an appeals court has taken the unusual step of ordering the chief prosecutor to go on trial for civil damages.

"It's rare for prosecutors to be tried for civil rights violations," said Bennett Gershman, a law professor at Pace University and a former New York state prosecutor who wrote a legal textbook on prosecutorial misconduct. "I don't know that anybody keeps track of the frequency of prosecutors going to trial. But it's my sense that it is extremely infrequent."

It is a ruling that, according to some legal experts, should send a message to prosecutors, who historically have been granted immunity from damages so they may prosecute cases without fear of legal retaliation by defendants. The message: They cannot automatically assume that a confession is the truth.

Chicago Tribune

Read more: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-prosecutor-suedmay15,0,1807931.story

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Will this mean that the 'Two-Ton Contest' is coming to an end?

[bmbmd]

1. Wow.

That is an incredible story of malfeasance and incompetence.

[LiberalFighter]

2. More prosecutors need to be held accountable. The voters is not enough in this case.

Cause the voters get it wrong too many times even when an elected official is incompetent.

[Jim__]

3. The prosecutor is immune from a lawsuit if she could reasonably believe the arrest was lawful.

According to the article: Noting that Spies would have been immune from a lawsuit if she could have reasonably believed the arrest was lawful, Drizin said, "Spies probably thought she was on safe ground because she had a confession."

Does anyone know if that's the standard required for her losing the lawsuit? That sounds like a difficult thing to prove.

[flashl]

5. Nifong comes to mind

for "intentional prosecutorial misconduct" in his pursuit of the Duke lacrosse rape case.

"Before you even get to the issue of immunity, there's an initial hurdle - you already have to be proven innocent". Heck v. Humphrey

[ToughLuck]

4. Good, accountability should extend to prosecutors...K/R

[mainegreen]

6. Yay accountability! n/t