Wrongful convictions throw harsh light on prosecutors’ conduct
DAs should face the deterrent of severe penalties for misconduct
As a defense attorney who has represented several wrongfully convicted clients, I would like to urge the Legislature to make prosecutorial misconduct a crime with serious penalties (“Now freed, they want DAs held to account,” Page A1, Dec. 25). Wrongful confinement in prison causes indescribable and irreparable harm to defendants, their friends and family, and society. It is time to break through the self-protective shield of the law enforcement community and establish rigorous and responsible oversight that would act as a powerful deterrent.
If prosecutors had to serve the same amount of time as the people they had wrongfully convicted, such convictions might be considerably reduced and hopefully eliminated.
ANDREA PETERSEN
Andover
Maybe DAs were doing what they thought was expected of them
Andrew Ryan’s article detailing allegations of prosecutorial misconduct might leave readers with the impression that each of the prosecutors named was a lone wolf, determined to violate rules for reasons of his or her own. It is more likely that they thought they were doing what was expected of them in their own offices — responding to incentives deeply embedded in the culture of the field.
So-called covert work rules develop naturally and become normalized in systems that are under pressure and can be expected to subvert the formal rules. Conformity, not violation, is the real cause.
This is why every wrongful conviction we discover should prompt an all-stakeholders, forward-looking “sentinel event” review that recognizes that it may not have been a purely individual-driven tragedy but rather a system-based calamity that we can, and should, learn from.
JAMES DOYLE
Salem
The writer is a defense lawyer and formerly head of the Public Defender Division of the Committee for Public Counsel Services.
Lawmakers must act, or public trust will be eroded
Prosecutorial and police misconduct that results in innocent (usually Black) men going to prison makes the public increasingly suspicious of the legal “injustice” system. The lying, faking, and cover-ups alleged and documented in Andrew Ryan’s front-page article gravely erode the trust needed to maintain civil society.
We need to believe that a prosecutor or police agent acting on behalf of government will not bring charges against someone they know is not guilty. To be a proper deterrent, dereliction of this duty ought to be a crime punishable by prison time.
Given the apparent indifference of the Massachusetts Office of the Bar Counsel and the Board of Bar Overseers, the General Court needs to change the law so that complaints can be registered and trials of police and prosecutors (former and current) occur in a timely fashion.
MARGARET MORGANROTH GULLETTE
Newton