Delaware Prosecutor Suspended for Misconduct in Capital Trial

The Supreme Court of Delaware vot­ed unan­i­mous­ly on July 27 to sus­pend for­mer Deputy Attorney General R. David Favata as a result of his mis­con­duct dur­ing a recent cap­i­tal tri­al. With a sin­gle dis­sent as to the length of the sus­pen­sion, the Court banned Favata from the prac­tice of law for six months and one day for inten­tion­al mis­con­duct dur­ing the cap­i­tal tri­al of Isaiah McCoy.

Earlier this year, the state Supreme Court over­turned McCoy’s con­vic­tion and death sen­tence and ordered a new tri­al because of Favata’s mis­con­duct. The court found that Favata had com­mit­ted sev­en dis­tinct eth­i­cal vio­la­tions in McCoy’s case, includ­ing vouch­ing for the tes­ti­mo­ny of a key gov­ern­ment wit­ness, repeat­ed­ly belit­tling McCoy as he attempt­ed to rep­re­sent him­self at tri­al, and lying to the judge about attempt­ing to intimidate McCoy. 

At one point, Favata object­ed to defense ques­tion­ing of the vic­tim’s girl­friend and dur­ing the objec­tion told the jury that McCoy had ​“shot her boyfriend.” During a break in the pro­ceed­ings, Favata com­ment­ed in front of McCoy about a mafia code of silence, and said he would put a detec­tive back on the stand to tell every­one that McCoy was a snitch. After McCoy raised the mat­ter with the court, Favata lied about mak­ing these com­ments, prompt­ing a court offi­cer to pass a note to the judge say­ing that McCoy was telling the truth. 

Favata also repeat­ed­ly dis­par­aged McCoy’s attempt to rep­re­sent him­self, say­ing ​“The trou­ble with deal­ing with some­body with a lim­it­ed edu­ca­tion and no legal edu­ca­tion is he does­n’t clear­ly under­stand what he’s read­ing.” The pros­e­cu­tor also demeaned McCoy by telling him to ​“start act­ing like a man” and crit­i­ciz­ing his attire, say­ing ​“You can dress him up. He’s still a murderer.” 

The case was the sec­ond time since 2014 that Delaware courts grant­ed a new tri­al for pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct in a cap­i­tal case. In May 2014, Jermaine Wright won a new tri­al after 21 years on death row when pros­e­cu­tors and police with­held excul­pa­to­ry evi­dence about pos­si­ble alter­nate sus­pects in a case in which no foren­sic or eye­wit­ness evi­dence linked Wright to the crime.