Orange County DA's Office (Along With 250 Prosecutors) Kicked Off Murder Case

[Mach]

Just another tip of an iceberg, I'm sure, I wish these Public Defenders would cross the country and investigate all the top 50 largest DA Offices and then watch the dominoes tumble from there.... and on this case, do you think that anyone will be held accountable? Cheahhh right......

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150602/08012431179/orange-county-das-office-along-with-250-prosecutors-kicked-off-murder-case-widespread-corruption.shtml

Orange County DA's Office (Along With 250 Prosecutors) Kicked Off Murder Case For 'Widespread Corruption'



The booting of the Orange County DA's office follows a 500+ page filing by the public defenders, more than half of which details similar jailhouse operations and a multitude of Brady violations committed by the same office over the past several years. This previously-withheld information -- much of it coming from a jailhouse computer log known as TRED -- is dismantling other "successful" prosecutions. Prosecutors have hid the existence of this database, as well as its contents, from defense teams and judges for most of 25 years.


Take a long look at what's been done here. A defense team -- all public defenders -- spent a year going through 60,000 pages of documents. Some lawyers, perhaps far too many, would have let a hopeless case like Dekraai's run its course and put more effort into those deemed a bit more "winnable." But this team didn't, and now the ugliness of Orange County law enforcement is on full display.

:mad:

[phill4paul]

This was the "Seal Beach murders."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Seal_Beach_shooting

Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83 (1963) was a landmark United States Supreme Court case in which the prosecution had withheld from the criminal defendant certain evidence. The defendant challenged his conviction, arguing it had been contrary to the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

The Supreme Court held that withholding exculpatory evidence violates due process "where the evidence is material either to guilt or to punishment"; and the court determined that under Maryland state law the withheld evidence could not have exculpated the defendant but was material to the level of punishment he would be given. Hence the Maryland Court of Appeals' ruling was affirmed.

A defendant's request for "Brady disclosure" refers to the holding of the Brady case, and the numerous state and federal cases that interpret its requirement that the prosecution disclose material exculpatory evidence to the defense. Exculpatory evidence is “material” if “there is a reasonable probability that his conviction or sentence would have been different had these materials been disclosed.”[1] Brady evidence includes statements of witnesses or physical evidence that conflicts with the prosecution's witnesses,[2] and evidence that could allow the defense to impeach the credibility of a prosecution witness.[3]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brady_v._Maryland


Sooo, when will the DA and his 250 man army be prosecuted under...

Title 42, U.S.C., Section 14141 makes it unlawful for state or local law enforcement agencies to allow officers to engage in a pattern or practice of conduct that deprives persons of rights protected by the Constitution or U.S. laws.

http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/investigate/civilrights/color_of_law

[tod evans]

It'd cost the citizenry far less in both money and lives to just string up ALL the prosecutors across the nation and start over.....

But I suppose this is a blow for the good guys.....

[phill4paul]

It'd cost the citizenry far less in both money and lives to just string up ALL the prosecutors across the nation and start over.....

But I suppose this is a blow for the good guys.....

This was pretty much a slam dunk case. The guy admitted to everything and there were witnesses. The DA wanted the death penalty the defenders wanted to reduce the sentence to life in the punishment phase. I imagine that this has been going on so long that it is just automatic for the DA's office. Glad the public defender called them out on it. I still don't have much regard for liaryers regardless of which side of the aisle they are sitting.

[Mach]

The "amazing" thing here is that this is how all government works, they do such crooked crap and do it so often that, it's just another day.

There were probably people that have worked in those Offices for years that didn't even know that they were doing something illegal.