Why Republicans Should Care About Prosecutorial Misconduct

With the Republican National Convention this week, I thought it would be interesting to report on this story I dug up in a blog from the Dallas Morning News, written by their editorial writer Rodger Jones.  I keep hearing that this is only a problem with liberals, even though some of the most rabid critics about the misconduct of at least one prosecutor I know are conservative Republicans.

Jeff Leach is a state Representative-elect from Plano, Texas.  Mr. Jones jokes his blog will guarantee Mr. Leach “a call from the Texas District and County Attorney’s Association.”

The Dallas Morning News produces online questionnaires for candidates before elections, and they asked a question this year about prosecutorial misconduct (which I’ll editorialize and add that this shows just how big an issue this is becoming).

The paper asked: “Lawmakers overwhelmingly approved eyewitness ID reforms and other measures in 2011 in response to troubling DNA exonerations. What other steps do you favor to improve the justice system?”

Mr. Jones offers that most candidates did not go very deep into this issue, generally offering up platitudes about justice, but not Jeff Leach.

He said, “From a civil justice perspective I support efforts to reduce the cost of litigation and allow for quicker sanctions on attorneys and plaintiffs who file frivolous lawsuits.

“I also believe the Commission on Judicial Conduct and the State Bar should more aggressively discipline or suspect attorneys or judges whose negligence or misconduct resulted in wrongful convictions.”

“Obviously, it wasn’t the lawsuit stuff that surprised me,” Mr. Jones writes. “The misconduct mention, though – wow!”

“Your typical Republican response on law-and-order matters is going to be, 99 out of 100 times, overwhelming deferential to lawmen,” he continues. “But here’s a member of next year’s freshman class, a Republican, who has staked out a different position on this, even absent a specific prompt. And he was specific.”

Mr. Jones then notes that his paper has published a number of articles and editorials on prosecutorial misconduct, as he put it, “a litany of dirty cases built up last year.“

He writes, “As we said, it’s a thread that winds through many different exoneration cases in Texas, with a number from Dallas County. The wronged parties, it’s clear, now have very little opportunity to hold public officials accountable. Lawmakers should find ways to even out the scales of justice in egregious cases.”

Jeff Leach is no moderate, in fact, his campaign literature boasts that he is “tea party-approved.”

Writes Mr. Jones: “In years past, that might have made him a safe bet for any conservative law-and-order imperative in the Capitol, but does the tea party orientation change things? It just might.”

He notes that Thomas Ratliff is one person who will be lobbying for new reforms on prosecutorial misconduct.  Mr. Ratliff, “an SBOE [State Board of Education] member and lobbyist for the Ratliff Company. Ratliff, a Republican and son of former acting Lt. Gov. Bill Ratliff, is working on the cause in behalf of Michael Morton, whose nearly 25 years in prison on a bogus conviction is a modern horror story. The injustice was compounded by the Williamson County district attorney’s ability to keep Morton from getting DNA tests on key evidence.”

Mr. Jones adds, “Ratliff told me today that the defeat of Willco DA John Bradley in his re-election primary is a signal that the public has a sense of fair play and accountability on justice matters. Because the Morton case has been such a huge deal in Central Texas, Ratliff said, Republicans from there might be willing to sign on to a misconduct bill.”

“I told Ratliff about my surprise on the Leach questionnaire, given Leach’s tea party bona fides. That’s true, Ratliff said, but conservative principles also place a high priority on accountability and ‘personal responsibility.’ ” Mr. Jones writes.  “Of course. When you think about it, shouldn’t it be the most conservative of Republicans who are the first to lose tolerance for anyone who abuses power and wrongs someone through the court system?”

This is exactly what my Republican friends tell me.

Mr. Jones adds, “The Constitution tried to build in safeguards against that, when abrogation of rights was commonly called ‘tyranny.’ The term ‘prosecutorial misconduct’ doesn’t roll off the tongue as well, but it’s no less an outrage against the principles of liberty that consumed the Founders in trying protect individuals from the state.”

He concludes, “The tea party has been expert at raising questions about the size and reach of government. Why should that not pertain to matters of justice as well?”

And while I am at it, Mr. Jones rightly points out that many Republicans have taken a hardline stance on law and order over the years.  But Democrats need a tremendous amount of criticism on this issue.

Too often over the last 20 years, going back to Three Strikes and the equally onerous gun laws in this state, Democrats have bent their philosophy over backwards proving they can be tough on crime.

Democrats failed to deliver the votes need to put Senator Lonnie Hancock’s death penalty bill on the ballot.  Democrats have failed on issues of justice reform in California.  They have failed on police oversight.

At our recent event, Republican DA Jeff Reisig’s op-ed might have been the number one topic of conversation, but right behind it was criticism of Democratic Governor Jerry Brown for his unproven and likely wrongful assertion that there are no innocent people sitting on death row.

Leading the way, former prosecutor and author of the 1978 Death Penalty Law, Don Heller, an avowed Republican, nevertheless believes that the Death Penalty law is broken and cannot be fixed.  And while he is quick to cite fiscal concerns, one of his biggest reasons for finally flipping was what he believed to be the wrongful execution of Tommy Thompson and what he saw as prosecutorial misconduct.

So I say welcome to the fight, it is in everyone’s best interest to make sure that those with the power to deprive others with their liberty are themselves acting appropriately.  It does no one any good if the wrong person is put into prison – it punishes the innocent and allows the guilty to go free.

That is not a Democratic and Republican problem, now, is it?

—David M. Greenwald reporting

Categories: