New player in fight for DA oversight board
The Innocence Project has joined ranks with state lawmakers to fight a court challenge by New York’s district attorneys, who contend a law creating a commission to investigate their conduct is unconstitutional.
“As a leading national advocate for the wrongly convicted dedicated to improving the criminal justice system, the Innocence Project has a compelling interest in ensuring that prosecutors are subject to meaningful, independent oversight,” states a memorandum filed Friday in state Supreme Court in Albany.
The legal brief counters a complaint filed a year ago by the District Attorneys Association of the State of New York, which contends legislators and Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo overstepped their authority when they created the oversight commission.
The Innocence Project’s memorandum is filed on behalf of three former state prison inmates, Jabbar Collins, Shawn Lawrence and
Wayne Martin, who “were all wrongly convicted of murder in New York state, and lost decades of their lives as a result of their wrongful convictions.”
The Innocence Project, along with several associated entities, supports the creation of an oversight commission because they contend “prosecutors who engage in misconduct rarely face even the slightest admonishment,” their legal brief states. “Serious sanctions are even more uncommon. This is true despite the often devastating consequences of such misconduct.”
Last December, Cuomo and state legislative leaders agreed to delay the appointment of the commission as they took steps to repair constitutional defects in the legislation through a series of amendments.
Cuomo had acknowledged when he signed the bill creating the Commission on Prosecutorial Conduct that it “suffers from several flaws.”
An analysis by the state attorney general’s office, requested by the governor, found the legislation was poorly crafted and would likely not withstand a court challenge because of “constitutional defects.”
But Cuomo said those issues were corrected with legislative amendments, and he signed the adjusted bill in March. Still, the governor has agreed not to activate the commission until the legal challenge brought by the district attorneys association is resolved.
The association asserts that the law “unlawfully subjects prosecutors to discipline without any governing standards, in contravention of their due process and equal protection rights.”
The intervention in the case by the Innocence Project follows a similar argument filed last month by a coalition of criminal defense and human rights organizations, including the New York State Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and the Legal Aid Society, who also support formation of the commission. The Innocence Project’s filing noted there is statistical data that paints a “damning picture” of the fallout of prosecutorial misconduct, adding that it is “the stories of those who have suffered from prosecutorial misconduct (that) show the true human cost of these actions, as well as an infuriating lack of consequences.”
“Despite a general consensus regarding the power of the prosecutor in our criminal justice system, and widespread acknowledgment that there are times in which this power is abused, prosecutors across the country and in New York state are subject to precious little oversight,” the Innocence Project’s memorandum says. “Some district attorney’s offices in New York state do not even have formal rules of conduct or guidelines to investigate or discipline prosecutors who engage in unethical behavior.”
Orange County District Attorney David Hoovler, president of the district attorneys association, did not respond to a request for comment on Monday.
The state’s district attorneys have said there is already a system to review misconduct by attorneys, including prosecutors, and that the governor has the authority to remove a district attorney for cause. Proponents of the legislation, which passed the Assembly and Senate, have included state Sen. John Defrancisco, R-syracuse, who pointed to instances of people wrongfully convicted of crimes as he argued for the creation of the commission.
The state Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers also supported the legislation, citing what the group said is a “lack of public accountability” by prosecutors who violate ethics rules and criminal procedure laws.
The legal analysis last year by the attorney general’s office raised questions about the breadth of the commission’s authority, and also the manner in which appointments would be made, including naming judges as members.
Last month, several news organizations — including the Associated Press, the Hearst Corporation, which owns the Times Union, and The New York Times Company — filed a legal brief in support of a lawsuit by the Innocence Project that seeks to have a disciplinary committee open its files on alleged prosecutorial misconduct by former Suffolk County assistant district attorney Glenn Kurtzrock.
Kurtzrock was fired from his prosecutorial position after “committing egregious prosecutorial misconduct in several murder cases,” according to a statement by the Innocence Project. “Yet there has been no public report of any disciplinary action against him. In the meantime, Kurtzrock continues to practice law in Suffolk County as a defense attorney, touting his experience as a ‘former homicide prosecutor.’”