New Law Cracking Down On Prosecutorial Misconduct -- But Does It Do Enough?

California has had enough of shady prosecutors and is taking action.

After a spate of high-profile incidents of alleged prosecutorial misconduct — including an ongoing scandal that threatens to bring down the entire Orange County DA’s office — the Golden State has decided to do something about it. Withholding evidence from defense lawyers is already against the law, but a new law signed this week puts some teeth into the prohibition.

The law, authored by state Assemblywoman Shirley Weber (D) and signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown (D) over the weekend, bolsters a judge’s ability to boot a prosecutor who withholds evidence from a case. Additionally, if other employees of the prosecuting attorney’s office participated or sanctioned the suppression of evidence, the court is authorized to eject the entire office. The law requires the court to report violations to the state bar, which licenses attorneys.

But as Judge Kozinski points out, the real test will be how willing the judges are to bring the hammer down on prosecutors:

“The bill seems like a step in the right direction,” Alex Kozinski, former chief judge of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, told The Huffington Post. “It seems to give a great deal of discretion to trial judges, so its effectiveness will depend on the degree to which those judges are willing to exercise that authority.”

We all know how readily Judge Kozinski will excoriate a rogue prosecutor, but the Ninth Circuit is also willing to joke around with and fawn all over prosecutors while people’s lives hang in the balance. And if that embarrassing love-in is what the federal system is doing, who knows how stingy state judges — often former prosecutors themselves — will be. In the final analysis, you probably shouldn’t expect mass hostility from the bench.

Still, if nothing else it’s an important symbolic gesture to put prosecutors on notice that their shenanigans could get them busted.

So that’s something!

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New California Law Cracks Down On Cheating Prosecutors

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