Thank you for the lesson on prosecutorial discretion.

The thing is that humans respond to the incentives. If in playing a certain game, it is possible to win by cheating and no attempt is made to detect and penalize cheating then rational self interest will lead to cheating being the norm. It is a fact that the law is basically a game, it may be an important game that affects peoples lives but it is still a game.

Only constant and unacceptably intrusive oversight would be sufficient to rein in “rogue” prosecutors and judges.

Mike Spindell is correct that the use of elections to select legal officials is part of the problem, but it would not go away were some other method of selection were used. Governments that are on the (blue collar) crime moral panic band wagon are as good at selecting appropriately biased officials as are panicked and fearful voters from the respectable classes. The real problem is the existence of a large and terrifying underclass of the marginalized that have no realistic hope of a place in legitimate society. This creates the fear of crime that results in the incentives for prosecutors and judges as well as police to adopt a win at all cost mentality.

Surely you’ve figured out by now that liberal and Democrat are not synonymous. Nifong is a liberal about like like Rock Hudson was straight. If he were a liberal like you’ve come to understand them since frequenting JT’s Salon, do you really think he’d have acted like he did? Both mespo and I are admitted “old school” liberals in the Jeffersonian sense. Do you think either of us would have committed this injustice? No, you were using the term liberal there like you used to, probably out of habit, but lumping liberal with Democrat is as big a mistake as lumping conservative with Republican – the labels are misleading when combined. Liberals may have brought Obama and Dems to power, but that doesn’t make us all Democrats. Believe me, I’d register Independent if I lived in a state with open primaries. Both parties suck, only one less than the other because of current criminal circumstances left by the previous administration.

And you’re right in that ego made him do it. Prosecutorial misconduct is a huge problem no matter the offenders political affiliation and like almost all wrongs and evils is done for ego gratification. Blind ambition is exactly that: blind. Also a little hard of hearing and dumb, but not dumb as in mute. We couldn’t get that lucky.

Texas, I should have known.

Actually Mike Nifong is an example of prosecutorial misconduct but you are right he is not a good example of race based prejudice. He may actually be prejudiced the reverse direction, but I suspect he just used his standard operating procedure which is to take no prisoners and use all methods that he thought he could get away with.

Mike Nifong is an excellent example of someone being caught for using their standard operating procedure on the wrong victims. The Duke Lacrosse players were able to afford competent defense lawyers and investigators, something that Mike Nifong did not take into account. Do you really think that he did not use similar methods in other cases where his defendants were not well enough armed to expose similar misconduct.

You want examples, read Nate Blakeslee’s book on the 1999 Tulia cocaine cases “Tulia: Race, Cocaine, and Corruption in a Small Texas Town”. It is an excellent text book on how police ,prosecutorial and judicial misconduct works. If you cannot find a copy of the book go to the site of The Texas Observer magazine, consult the archives and read Nate Blakeslee’s articles that preceded the book. Another good site is Friends of Justice which is chock full of examples.

For politically correct liberals “innocent” means not having performed the actions of a crime whereas to conservatives it means belonging to the respectable classes and being deemed entitled to immunity from prosecution.”

As a conservative the word innocent to me means not having committed a crime. I don’t know the conservatives you hang out with but the ones I know believe in the rule of law and that innocent means innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

We also don’t think the socio-economic status or the color of ones skin has anything to do with guilt or innocence.

Now why don’t you back that bold statement up with some examples and facts.

Oh and Mike Nifong (democrat) prosecutor of the Duke Lacrosse players, hmm skin color socio-economic status did not matter to him,-rich and white guilty as sin. Yep liberals sure are equitable in application of law and justice. And personally I think the players were full of shit for giving that woman a hard time, had that been my son I would have been appalled and would have opened up a can of country whup ass on him.

Personally I have a feeling that it has more to do with prosecutorial ego than liberal or conservative.

For politically correct liberals “innocent” means not having performed the actions of a crime whereas to conservatives it means belonging to the respectable classes and being deemed entitled to immunity from prosecution. George W Bush and Dick Cheney are by definition innocent while all poor people and blacks constitute the imprisonable or guilty classes who are fair game for the prosecutors turkey shoot. For conservatives the function of the law is to match guilty people with alleged crimes, that a particular member of the guilty classes convicted or plea bargained in to prison is not the one who actually performed the actions of the alleged crime is an irrelevancy.

In the case of prosecutors and judges, their desire to please the community of the righteous and get as many poor people and blacks as possible into profitable private prisons means that they don’t want anyone double checking their work after it is over.

Answer “Question for the lawyers:”

why isn’t DNA done as a required pre-trial screening/evidence gathering procedure?
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This is a new avenue, though they use it freely, they oppose it much. They oppose it when it shows weakness in their case.

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If I was innocent I would want it done as quickly as possible. Also what are the ramifications if DNA pre-trial says innocent and jury still says guilty or vice versa.

If the Prosecutor agrees the case is not tried. They can tab someone else.

Is DNA testing 100% fool proof?

Yes, Look at the residents of Arkansas. They only have one code. Only Kiddin. Though the family tree don’t split much.

why isn’t DNA done as a required pre-trial screening/evidence gathering procedure?

If I was innocent I would want it done as quickly as possible. Also what are the ramifications if DNA pre-trial says innocent and jury still says guilty or vice versa.

Is DNA testing 100% fool proof?