Posted on 05/27/2014 12:06:41 PM PDT by abb
In March, I posted a long report on the Darryl Howard case. There’s a lot to this story, but here’s a quick and dirty summary: Howard was convicted in 1995 for murdering a woman and her 13-year-old daughter in a Durham public housing complex. Despite evidence that both women had been sexually assaulted, there was no physical evidence linking Howard to the crime scene. In post-conviction, Howard’s attorneys discovered a police memo describing a tip indicating that the murders were the work of a gang called the New York Boys. The tip seemed particularly reliable because it referred to the fact that the women had been raped, a piece of information that wasn’t public.
The memo was found in both the police file and the file of District Attorney Mike Nifong. But there’s no evidence it was ever turned over to the defense. When DNA testing of sperm found in the daughter excluded Howard, Nifong proceeded with the case as if the sexual assaults weren’t part of the crime.
In an opinion released today, North Carolina Superior Court Judge Orlando Hudson overturned Howard’s conviction. Hudson’s decision finds for the defense on every major claim. It’s a resounding repudiation of the way Nifong handled Howard’s trial.
snip
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Under the Law of Moses a person who testified falsely to get someone else convicted of a crime was subject to the same penalty that he tried to inflict on someone else.
IMO a prosecutor who conspires to conceal evidence should be himself prosecuted for, at minimum, tampering with evidence.
Then make sure everybody at the prison knows why he’s there. Turn him loose in the general population.
but would he/she still be a lawyer?
They should be disbarred immediately for this type of “win at any cost”, “everyone is guilty” and “there are no innocent people” attitudes.
I agree disbarment should be automatic. They are “officers of the court,” and in theory seeing justice done is their first duty.
but the investigation was not automatic.
it was dragged out.
he filed bankruptcy and evaded any permanent liability.
DUI judgments are not dischagable.
Fraud judgements are not dischargable in bankruptcy.
There is such a think a emergency disbarment.
The fact this is found YEARS after the fact speaks volumes.
In any case, FWIW, his reputation is ruined for all time...................
Did Nifong win any death penalty convictions?
Not that I recall. He handled a lot of DWI cases, IIRC.
There has to be so much more that he did, waiting for discovery!
Someone should look into angela corey of the zimmerman case, I bet they’d find some misconduct by that evil witch too.
Again, end sovereign immunity. When will the prosecutions begin?
Mike Nifong: Hillary’s Attorney General.
He’s from a small town compared to places like LA, NY and Chicago. This stuff is happening all the time.
When a prosecutor attempts to convict an innocent man, that results in a loss of confidence for the entire legal system.
There is only one reason that Nifong did not share that note with the defense. It proved the defendant innocent of the crime.
I believe that Nifong was disbarred and spent some time in jail, but prosecutorial misconduct should be a crime with penalties approaching life in prison. The penalties should be harsh enough to dissuade any prosecutor from unfairly tipping the scales of justice in favor of the prosecution.
The current prosecutor needs to hunt ole’ Michael down and say let’s have a look here...
Even after dna or all kinds of other evidence proves someone guilty every cop and every prosecutor will say “We got the right man.” I despise them all.
The missing piece here is the jury. This speaks volumes as to why those serving on juries have to be doubly skeptical of the evidence provided to them. Prosecutors lie, cops lie, defendants lie, defense attorneys lie, judges lie, and witnesses lie.
You are right here in DC I knew a case where someone was Nifonged by prosecutors. Besides poor investigating, they hid exculpatory evidence...in the form of contradictory grand jury testimony by the accuser for over a year, and only released it days before trial to save prosecutors from getting disbarred. Needless to say the defendant was found overwhelmingly not guilty; even to the point where the detectives who worked the case testified for the defendant.
The accuser is in prison now on a murder charge.
If someone has earned a death penalty and the prosecutor is able to prove it in court, I have no problem with the sentence being carried out.
Having said that, it pi**es me off to no end when an innocent man who was wrongly convicted gets released many years later without an apology from the people responsible for his wrongful conviction.
In our system, no person should ever go to prison who is innocent.
No. Nifong was referring to winning a rape case the “old fashioned way.”
In this situation he denied the sexual assault aspect of the case because the DNA evidence didn’t match his selected perp. The prosecutorial misconduct here was lying about the rape and suborning perjury by a cop.
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