PRESS RELEASE FROM

FLORIDIANS FOR ALTERNATIVES TO THE DEATH PENALTY (FADP.org)

26 June 2003

CONTACT: Abe Bonowitz: 561-371-5204

FADP NOTES PROSECUTORIAL MISCONDUCT STUDY
"Important in light of today's SCOTUS decision in Wiggins v. Smith..."

A new and extensive study on prosecutorial misconduct in the United States
was released today by The Center for Public Integrity. Floridians for
Alternatives to the Death Penalty (FADP) urges members of the media to take
the research conducted by The Center for Public Integrity to the next level
with regard to Florida prosecutors named in the study.

A quick review of the information available in the on-line database
provided by the study finds that at least in the case of 10th Judicial
Circuit (Polk County) States Attorney Hardy Pickard, the information
presented barely scratches the surface. Pickard has been reprimanded by
two different judges for lying to the court and hiding evidence -- in
orders granting new trials to Florida death row prisoners Juan Melendez
(released Jan. 3, 2002) and William Kelley (soon to be released). Court
records have shown that in the Melendez case, Pickard was aware of the
confession of another suspect a full month before taking Melendez to trial
and sending him to death row for almost 18 years for a crime he did not
commit. Similarly, in his order granting Billy Kelley a new trial, Judge
Roettger said that Hardy Pickard, who is still working as a prosecutor
today, "has a habit of hiding evidence."

"When a prosecutor knowingly sends the wrong person to death row, in my
book that is attempted murder," said Abe Bonowitz, director of FADP. "This
new study is particularly important in light of the US Supreme Court's
decision today in the Wiggins v. Smith case, which addresses the quality of
representation by defense attorneys handling capital cases. When you
combine state's attorneys who are willing to cheat with defense attorneys
who are unqualified or unmotivated, you have a recipe for disaster. This
is one of the reasons Florida leads the nation in wrongful convictions and
death row exonerations. FADP renews its call for a "Time-Out" on executions
in Florida."

The complete report can be found at:
http://www.publicintegrity.org/pm/ Below is information from The Center
for Public Integrity.

*******************

Harmful Error: Investigating America's Local Prosecutors

Since 1970, individual judges and appellate court panels cited
prosecutorial misconduct as a factor when dismissing charges at trial,
reversing convictions or reducing sentences in at least 2,017 cases, a
3-year investigation by the Center for Public Integrity has found.

Sometimes the consequences are severe. In 28 cases, involving 32 separate
defendants, misconduct by prosecutors led to the conviction of innocent
individuals who were later exonerated, the Center found.

Innocent men and women were convicted of serious charges, including
murder, rape and kidnapping and assault.

Guilty defendants have also had their convictions overturned.

Sometimes those defendants cannot be retried because of double jeopardy
rules and are placed back on the streets of the community.

A team of 21 researchers, writers and editors analyzed 11,450 cases in
which charges of prosecutorial misconduct were reviewed by appellate court
judges. In the majority of cases, the allegation of misconduct was ruled
harmless error or was not addressed by the appellate judges, and the
conviction stood.

Because of the relative rarity of reversals, any prosecutor who has more
than one reversal to his or her credit belongs to a select club.

These prosecutors give recidivism-a word usually used to describe those
they work to put behind bars-a disturbing new meaning.

In Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Carmen Marino, who served for 30 years as a
prosecutor before retiring in 2002, won 5 convictions that were overturned
by the Ohio Supreme Court. Appellate judges have ruled that Montgomery
County, Ala., District Attorney Ellen Brooks' discriminatory tactics
deprived defendants of fair trials 4 times since she began prosecuting in
1977. Former Hinds County, Miss., District Attorney Edward Peters was
involved in 6 cases in which judges ruled that his conduct prejudiced a
defendant.

Center researchers compiled state-by-state summaries, tracking misconduct
across the nation:

* Of the 523 cases in which Pennsylvania defendants alleged misconduct,
287 were in Philadelphia. Judges reversed or remanded the conviction,
sentence or indictment in 41 cases tried in the City of Brotherly Love.

* In 35 of the 120 North Carolina appeals which Center researchers
studied, defendants pointed to Biblical references made by prosecutors as
grounds for reversal.

* Appellate judges in Alabama cited discrimination in jury selection in 45
% of the convictions they reversed.

* The Hennepin County District Attorney's office, which covers the
Minneapolis area, was responsible for 88 of the 241 Minnesota criminal
cases in which defendants alleged misconduct on appeal. In 12 of the
cases, judges reversed or remanded the conviction, sentence or indictment
because of the prosecutor's conduct.

The study also tracks the influence that the top prosecutor in a
jurisdiction, elected in some, appointed in others, can have on an office.
Since 1990-the year Walworth County, Wis., District Attorney Phillip Koss
was elected to office-there have been at least 27 appellate decisions
addressing alleged prosecutorial error. In the 20 years before that, there
were 3. In 12 of those 27 cases, judges ruled that the prosecutor's
conduct required reversing the defendant's conviction.

In San Diego, the office of district attorney has been held by prosecutors
who have attempted to make the office more accountable.

Yet appellate judges ruled on allegations of prosecutorial error or
misconduct allegations in 45 San Diego County cases, of which 8 led to
reversals, dismissals or acquittals. Of the 2,341 jurisdictions the Center
researched, San Diego stood out for the attempts its top prosecutors made
to do things differently.

Perhaps a reflection of their success lies in the fact that the citizenry
of San Diego County became so educated about prosecutorial misconduct that
when it did occur, they were ready to hold the district attorney
responsible and vote him out of office, no matter his accomplishments or
intentions.

Front line prosecutors

In most jurisdictions, at least 95 % of the cases that pour in from the
police never reach a jury, which means any misconduct occurs away from
public view. The only trial those defendants receive takes place in the
prosecutor's office; the prosecutor becomes the judge and the jury. The
prosecutor is the de facto law after an arrest, deciding whether to charge
the suspect with committing a crime, what charge to file from a range of
possibilities, whether to offer a pre-trial deal, and, if so, the terms of
the deal.

The Center's investigation tracked career prosecutors, and found some who
repeatedly broke the rules:

* The Wisconsin Court of Appeals has addressed Walworth County Assistant
District Attorney Diane Resch's conduct at least 10 times. In 1/2 of those
appeals, judges ruled that her conduct warranted reversing the defendant's
conviction. Three of those reversals, which included various
constitutional violations, were child sex abuse cases.

* Missouri judges cited Nels C. Moss Jr,. a St. Louis prosecutor, for
misconduct in at least 25 cases, yet Moss never faced a disciplinary
action during the more than 3 decades he has been a prosecutor. Over the
course of his career, Moss failed to turn over potentially exculpatory
evidence to the defense before trial; reneged during trial on a pre-trial
stipulation with the defense; called the jury's attention to the
defendant's failure to testify, thereby compromising the Fifth Amendment
rights of the accused; alluded to the defendant's prior criminal record, a
violation of the rules of evidence; attacked the character of the
defendant with information not in the court record; used inadmissible
material from a separate trial of an accomplice; promised during jury
selection or opening argument to present testimony never offered; attacked
the truthfulness of defense counsel; cast aspersions on the integrity of
an insanity defense; and inflamed jurors' passions during closing
argument.

* The repeated offenses of John Zimmermann, a Nashville prosecutor, led
his colleagues, including former state attorneys general and U.S.
attorneys, to document his misconduct in a brief submitted to the U.S.
Supreme Court last year on behalf of a death row inmate, Abu-Ali
Abdur'Rahman, whom Zimmermann had convicted.

Center researchers studied the conduct of local prosecutors, trying to
understand their actions within the context of a very difficult job. They
analyzed every accessible state appellate court opinion, trial court
ruling and state bar disciplinary filing back to 1970 addressing
allegations of prosecutorial misconduct. Researchers supplemented these
findings with additional cases not reported in court records but available
through media accounts or learned of through interviews and correspondence
with journalists, inmates, defense lawyers, state bar disciplinary
counsel, judges and other sources.

The case citations are available in a searchable, online database, along
with summaries tracking misconduct in each of the 50 states.

(source: The Center for Public Integrity)

SENT BY:

Abraham J. Bonowitz
Director

Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (FADP)
800-973-6548
fadp@fadp.org
www.fadp.org
PMB 335, 2603 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Hwy,
Gainesville, FL 32609

supporting and coordinating the work of organizations and individuals
educating and energizing the general public and state legislators
supporting the many persons affected by capital crime and punishment
advocating specific legislative improvements

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