California has enacted a new law giving judges greater authority to remove individual prosecutors - and in some instances entire prosecutorial offices - from cases if they willfully withhold evidence from the defense. Passage of the law was prompted by disclosure of systemic misuse of jailhouse informants by Orange County prosecuters, which led Superior Court Judge Thomas Goethals (pictured) to bar the entire Orange County District Attorney’s Office from participation in a death penalty case earlier this year. That misconduct included secretly using jailhouse informants to elicit confessions from suspects after they had invoked their right to counsel - a practice that has been declared unconstitutional - lying to the courts about the use of informants, and withholding potentially exculpatory evidence. In addition to providing judges expanded authority to remove offending prosecutors from cases, the new law requires judges to report such prosecutors to the state bar, which may take disciplinary action. While denying that there had been any “interntional bad faith withholding of evidence” by prosecutors in his office, Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackaukus praised the statute, calling it “a good law.” Jeff Thoma, the president of California Attorneys for Criminal Justice, said, “The public deserves to have confidence that prosecutors are committed to playing by the rules instead of trying to win at all costs. I applaud the passage of AB1328 and it being signed into law. I believe this has the positive effect of insuring greater due process by reducing (discovery) violations and holding those accountable that do so in bad faith.”

(T. Saavedra, “After Orange County D.A. kicked off case from jailhouse informants, prosecutors face stricter standards,” The Orange County Register, October 7, 2015.) See Recent Legislation and Prosecutorial Misconduct.

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