I had a beautiful niece, an aspiring model, who was killed by a millionaire serial murderer who stalked young women at beauty pageants and during professional photography shoots. Fortunately, he was killed by an alert LEO who was shot in the abdomen in a close battle with the rapist/murderer. Had the murderer not been killed, he would most likely still be in prison receiving good treatment by society. That is why lawyers, who violate legal ethics, such as in this case, must be severely punished themselves. They must be censured enough to prevent future abuses of their legal powers which might eventually lead to the release of killers such as Sechrest.

My sister has never gotten over—and will never recover fully from—the effects of the brutal rape, torture, and horrifying death of her daughter, whose decomposed body was found by a sheepherder in a remote location over a month later. The local, state, and federal LEOs, especially the FBI, completely botched the capture of the rapist because of turf battles and professional jealousies. Their incompetence likely contributed to my niece’s death. I was a federal law enforcement officer at the time, but without any jurisdiction, and all I could do was wait and support my sister all that I could.

One tragic irony of this case was that the murderer had my niece with him when they passed through a border inspection station check point—one that I passed through weekly—and because the FBI insisted on jurisdiction and secrecy, information regarding the murderer and my niece was not disseminated to all law enforcement agencies within the 4-state area where the couple had been seen. Of course, incompetent officers are never punished or reprimanded for their foul-ups.

This is one of the many reasons I am a strong, unwavering proponent of the death penalty when there is no doubt whatsoever of guilt (far beyond the legal threshold of beyond a reasonable doubt). Until someone experiences the direct pain and lifelong suffering resulting from such tragic events as you and your family and my family have experienced, then they just cannot understand the depth of despair. Any person, man or woman, who commits such acts as Sechrest committed has lost all rights to live in the care of a society with which he has immeasurably harmed. The man who murdered my niece had killed at least 8 other women and he was implicated in many other unsolved rapes/murders. He had fallen through the cracks of justice and the incompetency of a judicial system that let him go free one too many times.

There is nothing I can say to alleviate the pain you must still feel and the justifiable anger caused by your terrible loss. I share your outrage at this monstrous act and at the perpetrator who likely sat on death row until this decision. I must say though that this case was a terrible commentary on our system and quite frankly the people who prosecuted and defended it along with some rather strange aiding and abetting from the Judge who passively allowed this travesty to occur. The prosecutor’s outrageous conduct was equaled only by the incompetency of the defendant’s counsel which rendered the entire proceeding a farce. That is not your fault and the people involved owed you better–much better. As difficult as it is to accept, your sister’s killer will get a new trial on certain guilt issues and on the sentencing. He will have new counsel,and a new prosecutor, and if justice means anything at all–the same result will occur. I know that justice delayed is justice denied for little Carly and Maggie, but take some comfort from the fact that we all share your loss and mourn for the victims and the system that so miserably failed them both. I wish you and your family well.

Worse still it was designed to impose Lane’s sense of justice on the trier of fact whose job it was to make that decisison with the candid assistance of the prosecutor. The Judge bears some responsibility too, but every man is responsible for own his own integrity. My law school professors called this “personal” advocacy, and it is as true today as then.

FFLeo:

Agree to 1 & 2. Will have to think about 3, but the answer is probably yes. There are State avenues of complaint for these excesses if they are habitual or so egregious as to undermine the process. I have always thought lawyers should have some sort of Bar approved demerit system with the results available to the public. Nothing tends to rein in the dark side of character like public view of the flaws.

1. censuring any trial lawyer clearly misrepresenting such legal facts in courts of law?

2. disbarment if 2 or more such offenses occurred in separate trials?

3. sanctions against presiding judges who condone such misrepresentations without warning attorneys of possible contempt charges if those continued and then not issuing a contempt citation if they continued?

Does the ABA, or other judicial review boards, have codes of conduct and ethics rules violation standards that are enforceable against this type of professional legal misconduct?

Having a case overturned ‘might’ temporarily harm an attorney’s trial competency reputation; however, such misconduct overwhelming damages the trust in the criminal justice system. All of the time and money spent to convict this person is lost and an appeal or subsequent trial will add to the burden of an already overtaxed legal system, especially since trial attorney misconduct in other cases likely results in many such re-trials or appeals. If attorneys knew that there were financial and legal consequences for this obvious unethical behavior, perhaps it would cease.

Whatever his later accomplishments on television, this is not some small error. The statement was clearly calculated to mislead the jury and circumvent their deliberations.

JT