A Prosecutor's Take on Mike Nifong
I’ve been thinking about posting about Mike Nifong’s disbarment, but before I got around to it, I ran across this excellent piece from an Austin prosecutor:
I don't believe in punishment for prosecutors who are simply wrong (the job inherently requires people to make important decisions, sometimes based upon limited information), but Nifong ignored crucial evidence while seeking indictments, withheld exculpatory evidence from the defense (a huge no no for prosecutors), and may have even perjured himself regarding the availability of certain evidence when responding to inquiries by the court…
The only thing that I find remarkable about the case is how much retribution is being heaped upon Nifong for his overzealous prosecution. I say this not because he is undeserving of it, but because this is probably not an entirely isolated incident in which prosecutors are aggressively and unethically prosecuting defendants whose guilt they have very good reason to doubt…
Even if overzealous, unjust prosecutions result in a correct verdict and exonerate some wrongly accused defendants, the typical low income defendant is unlikely to see the kind of justice meted out against an overzealous prosecutor on their case the way that it is currently being delivered to Mike Nifong.
Jason is exactly right, of course. Let’s not miss the point of the disbarment. Yes, these defendant’s were incorrectly charged, but it was the District Attorney’s grossly unethical behavior that got him in trouble. As well it should have.
It is neither unusual nor unethical for a prosecutor to indict an innocent person. They have no real way of knowing whether the person is actually factually 100% guilty. As they like to say in voir dire, only witnesses know the truth (and sometimes not even then), and jurors and lawyers involved can’t be witnesses in a case.
Nifong’s unethical behavior was hiding facts and evidence from the defense that showed that they were not guilty, and then lying to the Court about it. I suspect that it was the dishonesty with the judge that truly hung Nifong, rather than not turning over what we lawyers call Brady material.
As they say, it’s usually the cover up that gets folks in trouble.
