Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Prosecutorial Immunity

The Supreme Court hears oral argument today on a case about whether prosecutors have absolute immunity from suit for misconduct. The misconduct in this case was criminal - the prosecutors and police actively framed two black teenagers they knew were innocent.

I suspect that the court will grant the prosecutors immunity. And I think that is bullshit. If prosecutors are so worried about getting sued for framing defendants, there is an easy solution - DON'T FRAME DEFENDANTS.

As far as I'm concerned, those police and prosecutors should be in prison for life, no parole, for what they did. As it is, I'm sure none of them will do a single day in jail and they'll probably get this immunity too. There is no justice in our system.

5 comments:

S said...

Amen! I'm always so floored when people argue that it would have a chilling effect on prosecutors if they didn't have immunity for egregious misconduct and criminal obstruction of justice. Isn't that a chilling effect we want?!? Ooh, I'd better not frame a couple of innocent kids because I might get in trouble for it. Isn't that a whole heck of a lot better than, "Hey, I guess I'll try to frame these two punks because I can pad my conviction count and I know they must have done something bad, and if I ever get caught, I won't get in trouble!"

armagh444 said...

Well, prosecutors don't have to worry about giving their clients ineffective assistance. And they don't have to fret over the possibility of getting sued for malpractice. Immunity is just more of the same.

Gawds am I ever getting bitter.

Okjco said...

I hope you are wrong, but unfortunately you are probably not. The systemic use of patently illegal behavior as means justified by their own ends has increased insidiously over the course of the last half century. Our founding fathers would be rolling over in their graves. If the supreme court explicitly accepts it as constitutional it will be a sad day for the republic.

Donny_the_DM said...

I too was flabberghasted when I saw this. It made me wonder how ANYONE can justify allowing dirty cops or prosecutors literally get away with murder.

I mean wow...chilling effect? Really? Do they know how hard it is to sue a defense attorney (for starters) for an honest mistake? Much less a full-blown conspiracy.

Just what the world needs, cops and lawyers (pardon, prosecuors) who can literally point their finger at anyone, have them assumed guilty, and not have any serious oversight or liability if they INTENTIONALLY fuck someone over. What a sad and sorry joke that is being played on us.

LOVE the blog by the way. Combines two of my favorite thigs in the world, gaming and politics :)

DBB said...

It will be very interesting to see how the case turns out. But I'm not holding my breath.