The Arizona Supreme Court has ordered that for­mer Pima County pros­e­cu­tor Kenneth Peasley be dis­barred for know­ing­ly elic­it­ing false tes­ti­mo­ny in a cap­i­tal mur­der case. After study­ing the results of a review con­duct­ed by its Disciplinary Commission, the Supreme Court not­ed that the use of false tes­ti­mo­ny in the tri­al of two men accused in a 1992 triple-mur­der case ​“could not have been more harm­ful to the jus­tice sys­tem.” In their unan­i­mous deci­sion, the Justices stat­ed, ​“A pros­e­cu­tor who delib­er­ate­ly presents false tes­ti­mo­ny, espe­cial­ly in a cap­i­tal case, has caused incal­cu­la­ble injury to the integri­ty of the legal pro­fes­sion and the jus­tice sys­tem.” The Disciplinary Commission found that Peasley, a two-time pros­e­cu­tor of the year, elicit­ed false tes­ti­mo­ny from a detec­tive with whom he was good friends dur­ing a death penal­ty case in 1993 and dur­ing a retri­al in 1997. In a 2002 rul­ing over­turn­ing the con­vic­tion of one of the defen­dants, the Supreme Court said that Peasley inten­tion­al­ly deceived the jury to com­pen­sate for weak­ness­es in his case. During his 20-year career, Peasley has con­duct­ed approx­i­mate­ly 250 felony cas­es, includ­ing 140 homi­cide cas­es, 60 or which were cap­i­tal cas­es. (Arizona Republic, May 28, 2004) See DPIC’s Report, Killing Justice. See also Arizona.

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